Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan)

Key Findings

1.First Asian nation to reach Mars and the first Mars mission in history to succeed on its maiden attempt
2.Mars Color Camera returned wide-area images of the full Martian disk — including global dust storm monitoring during 2014
3.Methane Sensor for Mars placed an upper bound of 7 ppb on atmospheric methane concentration over the observed regions
4.Demonstrated low-cost interplanetary capability at approximately $74 million USD — a fraction of contemporary Western mission budgets

Mission Outcome

Mangalyaan entered Mars orbit on September 24, 2014, eight months after launch, making India only the fourth space agency to reach Mars and the first to do so on a debut attempt. The spacecraft operated for nearly eight years, far exceeding its six-month design life, before contact was lost in August 2022 when onboard batteries were depleted after an extended eclipse. The mission established ISRO as a credible interplanetary space agency.

Sources

[1] ISRO — retrieved 2026-06-01
“Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is India's first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit.”
[2] NASA NSSDCA — retrieved 2026-06-01

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