Mars Orbiter Mission

MOM, Mangalyaan

Mission Profile

Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM, Mangalyaan) was India's first interplanetary spacecraft, launched on 5 November 2013 aboard a PSLV-XL and successfully entering Mars orbit on 24 September 2014, making ISRO the fourth space agency to reach Mars and India the first Asian nation to successfully orbit the red planet on its very first attempt. The 1,337 kg spacecraft carries five instruments studying Mars's surface features, morphology, atmosphere, and mineralogy, including a methane sensor and thermal infrared spectrometer. MOM was primarily a technology demonstration mission with a budget of just $73 million — less than the production cost of the film Gravity — proving India's capability in deep space navigation, mission planning, and spacecraft systems engineering. The mission operated for nearly eight years before contact was lost in late 2022.