India’s Mars mission ‘cheaper than movie’

NEW DELHI — India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, led nationwide celebrations Wednesday after his country became the first in the world to send a satellite to Mars successfully on a first attempt.

The Mangalyaan satellite became the 21st to enter the planet’s orbit on Tuesday evening, a day after the American Maven — Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution — mission.

The feat cost India a tiny fraction of the bill footed by NASA for its expedition — the U.S. spent $740 million compared with the $81 million invested in the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission.

“A Hollywood movie costs more,” Modi said as he seized on the achievement as confirmation that India is now a world leader in lowcost space exploration.

He had previously joked that the mission’s budget was lower than Gravity, the Sandra Bullock and George Clooney science fiction film which was $23 million more expensive.

The triumph buoyed Modi two days before he is due to lead a busi- ness delegation to the U.S. to encourage more foreign firms to invest in Indian manufacturing.

The Mars Orbiter Mission travelled 644 million kilometres to become the 21st successful attempt to enter Martian orbit.

It had done so in just three years and relied entirely on Indian-designed and manufactured components, Modi said.

Mangalyaan’s entry into Mars orbit is the latest in a series of Indian space exploration successes. In November 2008, the Chandrayaan expedition landed on the Moon and dis- covered traces of water on the lunar surface. India has since pledged to spend $3 billion on developing a manned spacecraft and eventually put Indian astronauts on the Moon.

Mangalyaan is a smaller mission than its American Maven rival, with fewer payloads and a flight schedule of just six months.

The satellite was launched in May last year and contains five solarpowered instruments to test the planet’s atmosphere and mineralogy. It will also explore for signs of water believed to have once been present on Mars’s surface.