Mangalyaan completes 1 month in Martian orbit, Google celebrates with a doodle

New Delhi, Oct 24: As India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) successfully completed its first month in the Red planet's orbit, search engine giant Google has put out a special doodle on its home page. The doodle shows an image of the Mangalyaan with a portion of Mars in the background.

The MOM, which has been the biggest space achievements of India, enteRed the Mars orbit on September 24 was blasted off into space on November 5, 2013. After achieving this milestone, India's space agency, ISRO, has placed itself in elite club of Martian explorers with United States, European Space Agency and former Soviet Union. Even big Asian giants China and Japan have not been lucky till now.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi applauded ISRO's Mars mission as a major achievement for the country. "History has been created today. We have achieved the near impossible. I congratulate all ISRO scientists and all my fellow Indians on this historic achievement," he said on the day Mangalyaan enteRed the Mars orbit. "The odds were stacked against us. Of the 51 missions attempted across the world so far, a mere 21 had succeeded. But we have prevailed."

Earlier on Monday, MOM tweeted and heaved a sigh of relief after it witnessed comet Siding Spring pass by. It was closet to the comet when it flew past by the Red Planet. ISRO officials say that MOM may send pictures of the comet and that the data and the images were being processed and the information could be made public in a few days.

"Phew! Experience of a lifetime. Watched the #MarsComet #SidingSpring whizzing past the planet. I'm in my orbit, safe and sound," tweeted MOM which has over 1,68,000 followers.

OneIndia News