{India has successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars, becoming the fourth country to do so.
\n}<\/p>\n
The Mangalyaan robotic probe, one of the cheapest interplanetary missions ever, will soon begin work studying the Red Planet’s atmosphere.<\/p>\n
A 24-minute engine burn slowed the probe down enough to allow it to be captured by Mars’ gravity.<\/p>\n
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had achieved the “near impossible”.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the mission control centre in the southern city of Bangalore he said: “The odds were stacked against us. Of 51 missions attempted in the world only 21 have succeeded. We have prevailed.”<\/p>\n
Only the US, Europe and Russia have previously sent missions to Mars, but India is the first country to succeed on its first attempt.<\/p>\n
The latest US satellite, Maven, arrived at Mars on Monday.<\/p>\n
US space agency Nasa congratulated its Indian counterpart, the Indian Space and Research Organization (Isro), on Wednesday’s success.<\/p>\n
“We congratulate @ISRO for its Mars arrival! @MarsOrbiter joins the missions studying the Red Planet,” the agency tweeted.<\/p>\n
From early in the morning, there was an atmosphere of excitement and tension at the Indian Space Agency’s Mission Tracking Centre in Bangalore.<\/p>\n
Scientists, many of them women and several of them young, were seated in front of their computer monitors tracking the progress of Mangalyaan.<\/p>\n
Giant screens above their heads fed a steady stream of data, graphics and sequence of operations. The first whoops broke out when Mangalyaan successfully fired up its liquid engine, the first in a series of critical moves to make sure that the spacecraft was able to launch into the planet’s gravitational pull.<\/p>\n
Then there was an agonising 20 minutes, when Mangalyaan disappeared behind Mars and beyond contact.<\/p>\n
But there was no mistaking the moment, when the scientists all rose as one, cheered, clapped, hugged each other and exchanged high fives – \u00ad confirmation that Mangalyaan was now on an elliptical orbit around Mars.<\/p>\n
After PM Modi’s congratulations, they poured out into the open and the bright sunlight, beaming as they took in the adulation.<\/p>\n
“Thrilled to be a part of history,” one young scientist told me. “It’s like hitting a golf ball from Bangalore to London and getting it into the hole in one go,” deputy operations director, BN Ramkrishna said. “It’s got to be that precise.”<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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