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| The PSLV-C25 launch vehicle, carrying the Mars Orbiter probe as its payload, lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota Tuesday. |
India successfully launched its first mission to Mars Tuesday, aiming to become the only Asian nation to reach the Red Planet with a programme showcasing its low-cost space technology.
"It's lift off," said a commentator on state television as the red-and-black rocket blasted into a slightly overcast sky on schedule at 02:38 pm (0908 GMT) from the southern spaceport in Sriharikota.
The 350-tonne launch vehicle carrying an unmanned probe was monitored by dozens of tense-looking scientists in white lab coats who faced their most daunting task since India began its space programme in 1963.
The country has never before attempted inter-planetary travel, and more than half of all missions to Mars have ended in failure, including China's in 2011 and Japan's in 2003.
After 44 minutes, applause rippled around the control room after monitoring ships stationed in the South Pacific reported that the spacecraft had successfully completed the first stage of its 300-day journey.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan slapped a colleague on the back and said he was "extremely happy" to announce that the rocket had placed the probe in an orbit around Earth.
The Mars Orbiter Mission, known as "Mangalyaan" in India, was revealed only 15 months ago by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, shortly after China's attempt flopped when it failed to leave Earth's atmosphere.
The timing and place of the announcement-in an Independence Day speech-led to speculation that India was seeking to make a point to its militarily and economically superior neighbour, despite denials from ISRO.
The gold-coloured probe, the size of a small car, will aim to detect methane in the Martian atmosphere. It has been hurriedly assembled and was carried into orbit by a rocket much smaller than US or Russian equivalents.
Lacking the power to fly directly, the spacecraft will orbit Earth for nearly a month, building up the necessary velocity to break free from our planet's gravitational pull.
Only then will it begin the second stage of its journey which will test India's scientists to the full, five years after they sent a probe called Chandrayaan to the moon.
The cost of the Mars mission is 4.5 billion rupees ($73 million), less than a sixth of the 455 million dollars earmarked for a Mars probe by NASA which will launched later this month.
"We didn't believe they'd be able to launch this early," project scientist for the NASA Mars probe, Joe Grebowsky, told AFP before blastoff. "If it's successful, it's fantastic."
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