India's Odyssey To Red Planet Blasts Offs: 12 Key Facts About It

Sriharikota: Isro, have successfully launched its historic mission to Mars, it's first-ever launch outside the Earth's sphere of influence in its 44-year-long history. Here are some key facts about Isro's Mars mission:

1. This is the first time the national space agency is aspiring to send a mission to study a celestial body outside Earth's sphere of influence.

2. India's Mars Orbiter is expected to reach the red planet's orbit by September 2014 and look for the presence of methane, an indicator of life there.

3. Isro has put in place an extensive network of stations worldwide to track the Mars Orbiter Mission after launch from the first launch pad at 2.38pm.

4. Unlike other PSLV missions, PSLV C25 will take more than 40 minutes to inject the Mars Orbiter into Earth's orbit as it has a long coasting phase (1,700 seconds) for the launch and has to achieve an "argument" of perigee of 276.4 degrees.

5. The vehicle trajectory will be tracked by monitoring stations at the Space Centre here, Indian Deep Station Network at Byalulu near Bangalore and Down Range Station at Port Blair in India and also from Biak in Indonesia and Brunei.

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