Meant to last 6 months, India’s Mangalyaan completes 4 years in space and running!

Bengaluru, Oct 1: Mangalyaan or Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first interplanetary probe, completed four years on job on September 24. It was put into the orbit around Mars on this date in 2014 and it achieved a number of feats then. It not only saw India becoming the first country to succeed in Mars mission and fourth overall to send probes to the Red Planet but it also did it very cheaply, stunning West's experts.

Now, four years since it landed in Mars' orbit, Mangalyaan has made the headlines for another reason. While its life expectancy was expected to be six months, it has survived four years! So 'Made in India' is something not only cheap but also durable.

#ISROMissions

It's been four years since @MarsOrbiter successfully got inserted into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt. #MOM's mission life was expected to be six months! So far, the Mars Colour Camera has acquired 980+ images. Mars Atlas is also ready. pic.twitter.com/z4GGkGvl0C

— ISRO (@isro) September 24, 2018

Mangalyaan was launched in November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation and it cost less than the budget of Hollywood movie 'Gravity' which was released in the same year. The mission won the National Space Society's 2015 Space Pioneer Award. Its illustration also found a place on INR 2000 currency note.

For the traditional thinkers that spending on space programme actually helps the developing nations less who they consider should be spending more on their social uplift, India's Mars mission put things in an opposite perspective. India's inexpensive and durable space mission is likely to encourage other developing nations also to do something similar and an overall impact of an advanced space research will do a universal social good.

India is also planning to launch its second interplanetary mission - Mangalyaan 2 - in the 2021-22 time frame.