Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission)

What was ISRO’s Mars mission?

ISRO’s Mars mission was the Mars Orbiter Mission, nicknamed Mangalyaan, India’s first mission to another planet.[1][2] Mangalyaan means “Mars craft.”[15][18] Its main goal was to prove that India could build a spacecraft able to reach Mars, enter orbit and look after itself there. Science came second.[6][9]

ISRO had to move fast. It aimed for the November 2013 launch windowLaunch windowA launch window is the stretch of time, about every 26 months, when Earth and Mars line up so a spacecraft can reach Mars using the least fuel.More in the glossary, because the next one would not open for more than 780 days, in 2016.[7] It designed, built and launched the spacecraft in less than two years.[8]

Mangalyaan launched on Nov 5, 2013, at 09:08 UTC (2:38 pm in India), on a PSLV rocket from Sriharikota.[5][15] The rocket put it into a stretched orbit around Earth. The spacecraft then fired its engine six times to raise that orbit, and left for Mars on Dec 1, 2013.[5] It flew a minimum-energy transfer orbitTransfer orbitA transfer orbit is the path a spacecraft coasts along around the Sun from Earth’s orbit to Mars’s, timed so that it and Mars arrive at the same place at the same time.More in the glossary for about 300 days and fired its main engine to enter Mars orbit on Sep 24, 2014.[3][5][11]

That made ISRO the fourth space agency to reach Mars orbit, after those of the United States, the Soviet Union and Europe. ISRO says India was the first country to do it on its first attempt.[5][17] The Indian government also calls it the first Asian country to reach Mars orbit.[12] Japan’s Nozomi and China’s Yinghuo-1 had both failed before it, The Planetary Society noted.[16]

ISRO figures. Its orbit changed over the years; the September 2016 figure is the latest ISRO published that we found. The 7.5 years runs from arrival to the last contact.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

How much did Mangalyaan cost?

₹450 crore, about $80 million, according to ISRO.[1][6] ISRO says that low cost, together with success on the first try, “captured the world attention.”[1] Space.com reported a cost of $74 million when the spacecraft reached Mars in 2014.[17]

What did Mangalyaan carry?

Five science instruments, about 14 kg (31 lb) in all, to study Mars’s surface and atmosphere.[1][5]

• 01Mars Color Camera (MCC). A color camera whose pixels covered about 19.5 m (64 ft) at the closest point of its orbit. From farther out it could fit the whole planet in one frame. ISRO’s Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad built it.[1]
• 02Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS). Mapped the temperature and makeup of the surface, by day and by night.[1][5]
• 03Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM). Built to measure methane in the atmosphere and map where it was.[1]
• 04Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer (MENCA). A mass spectrometer that sampled the gases of the exosphere, the outermost layer of air, to help explain how Mars loses its atmosphere.[1][5]
• 05Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP). Measured deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen, against ordinary hydrogen in the upper atmosphere.[5]

What did Mangalyaan find?

New details of how Mars’s outermost air behaves and escapes, and the first view of the far side of the moon Deimos.[1][3]

• 01“Hot” argon. MENCA found argon atoms in the exosphere carrying more energy than ordinary ones, a clue to one way Mars loses its air.[1][3]
• 02Where oxygen takes over. About 270 km (168 mi) up, on evenings when Mars was closest to the Sun, oxygen atoms outnumbered carbon dioxide. MENCA showed this for the first time.[1]
• 03Dust storms speed up escape. Its observations of a global dust storm showed the storm boosting the escape of Mars’s atmosphere.[1][3]
• 04Clouds over a canyon. Its camera measured haze in the air and spotted lee-wave clouds above the southern wall of Valles Marineris.[1][3]
• 05Deimos’s far side. It photographed the far side of Deimos, Mars’s outer moon, for the first time, ISRO says.[1][3]
• 06Whole-planet portraits. From the far end of its orbit, around 72,000 km (44,700 mi) out, its camera caught the whole disk of Mars in one frame. ISRO turned its images into a Mars atlas in September 2015, and used them to track the polar ice caps changing through the seasons.[3][5][8]
• 07The Sun’s outer atmosphere. Scientists also used its radio signals to study the Sun’s corona.[1]

By September 2022 more than 7,200 users had registered to download its data from the Indian Space Science Data Centre, including about 400 from 50 countries outside India, and they had made about 27,000 downloads, ISRO said.[3]

How did Mangalyaan end?

It lost contact with Earth during a long eclipse in April 2022, and ISRO declared it non-recoverable that fall.[3]

1. Mar 23, 2015Its six-month design life ran out. It kept working.[2]
2. May 27 to Jul 1, 2015With the Sun between Earth and Mars, no contact was possible. The spacecraft looked after itself for 35 days.[5]
3. April 2022It lost contact with its ground station during a long eclipse, when it passed through Mars’s shadow.[3][15]
4. Sep 27, 2022At a national meeting marking eight years at Mars, ISRO concluded that its propellant must have run out. Without it the spacecraft could not hold the pointing it needed to keep generating power.[3]
5. Oct 3, 2022ISRO’s statement said the spacecraft was non-recoverable and had reached the end of its life.[3]

ISRO says Mangalyaan lived about eight years in Mars orbit, against a six-month design life.[3] It last spoke to Earth about 7½ years after it arrived.

Is there a Mangalyaan 2?

Not yet. India has plans for a second Mars mission, often called Mangalyaan-2, but no ISRO or government document we found gives it a launch date.[13][14][18][20]

India’s Space Commission approved ISRO’s Mars Lander Mission on Dec 20, 2024, to go to the Cabinet for approval.[21] The Department of Space’s annual report for 2025–26 says the mission is still awaiting that approval. It describes the lander as a follow-on to Mangalyaan, to study the Martian surface, the environment just above it, and how the Sun and Mars interact.[20]

In December 2025 the Department of Space told India’s Parliament that ISRO’s projects include a “Mars Lander Mission,” with ₹2 crore budgeted for 2025–26 and nothing spent by November 2025.[13] A government overview of India’s space plans published in June 2026 gives target dates for missions to the Moon and Venus, but lists no new Mars mission.[14]

In May 2024 Space.com, citing India Today, reported that ISRO officials had described Mangalyaan-2 as a landing mission with a rover and a helicopter, with a supersonic parachute and a sky crane to set the rover down. Space.com noted that ISRO had made no official announcement about the mission.[18] Earlier targets have passed: in 2019, Space.com reported a launch no earlier than 2022.[19]

Mission timeline

1. Nov 5, 2013Launches on PSLV-C25 from Sriharikota.[5][10]
2. Dec 1, 2013Leaves Earth orbit for Mars.[5]
3. Sep 24, 2014Enters Mars orbit on India’s first attempt.[2][5]
4. Mar 23, 2015Completes its six-month design life, still working.[2]
5. September 2015ISRO publishes a Mars atlas from its images.[8]
6. Sep 24, 2016Its first year of science data goes public.[5]
7. April 2022Contact lost during a long eclipse.[3]
8. Oct 3, 2022ISRO declares the mission over.[3]

Sources

1. ISRO — Mars Orbiter MissionPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
2. ISRO — FAQ – Mars Orbiter MissionPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
3. ISRO — Update on the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and the National Meet Organised on 27 September, 2022Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
4. ISRO — PSLV-C25 / Mars Orbiter Mission (launch brochure)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
5. ISRO — Mars Orbiter Mission Long Term Archive Release StatementPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
6. ISRO — Illustrated Book on Mars Orbiter MissionPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
7. ISRO — Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
8. ISRO — Celebrating one year of Mars Orbiter Mission in Orbit; Release of Mars AtlasPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
9. ISRO — Mission ObjectivesPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
10. ISRO — PSLV-C25Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
11. ISRO — Mars Orbiter Mission ProfilePrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
12. Press Information Bureau, Government of India — Atmanirbharta in Space (factsheet)Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
13. Press Information Bureau, Department of Space — Parliament Question: Funds for ISRO ProjectsPrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
14. Press Information Bureau, Government of India — India’s Space Odyssey: Building India’s Space FuturePrimary · checked Oct 6, 2026
15. The Planetary Society — Mangalyaan, India’s first Mars missionSecondary · checked Oct 6, 2026
16. The Planetary Society — Reflecting on the success of Mars Orbiter MissionSecondary · checked Oct 6, 2026
17. Space.com — India’s First Mars Probe Makes Historic Red Planet ArrivalSecondary · checked Oct 6, 2026
18. Space.com — India’s ambitious 2nd Mars mission to include a rover, helicopter, sky crane and a supersonic parachuteSecondary · checked Oct 6, 2026
19. Space.com — India Looks Beyond the Moon to Mars, Venus and Astronaut MissionsSecondary · checked Oct 6, 2026
20. Department of Space, Government of India — Annual Report 2025-2026Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026
21. Department of Space, Government of India — Monthly Summary of Department of Space for the month of December, 2024Primary · checked Oct 6, 2026