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BBC: On Tuesday, the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) successfully placed the Mangalyaan spacecraft into orbit around Mars. India's is just the fourth national space program to reach Mars, and did so on its first try, which neither the US nor Russia (then the USSR) was able to do. More notable is that Mangalyaan is one of the least expensive planetary missions ever, with a total project cost of just $74 million. In comparison, NASA's MAVEN, which reached Mars orbit on Monday, cost $671 million. Mangalyaan will be creating a photographic survey of Mars and attempting to detect methane, a potential sign of life, in the planet's atmosphere.
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Mangalyaan becomes India's first Mars-orbiting satellite Free
24 September 2014