NEW DELHI, (PNA/Xinhua) — India Tuesday launched its maiden mission to Mars from the spaceport of Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
The 73 million U.S. dollars worth Mars Orbiter Mission, nicknamed Mangalyaan — which means “Mars craft” in Hindi — lifted off at 2:38 p.m. (local time) atop an Indian-made rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota.
The 1,337 kg mission, with the Mars Orbiter satellite and five other scientific instruments on board to study Martian surface, atmosphere and mineralogy, is set to travel for 300 days and expected to reach the Red Planet’s orbit in September 2014, according to scientists from state-owned Indian Space Research Organization.