Previous Year Question
Consider the following statements:
The Mangalyaan launched by ISRO
is also called the Mars Orbiter Mission.
made India the second country to have a spacecraft orbit the Mars after USA.
made India the only country to be successful in making its spacecraft orbit the Mars in its very first attempt.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Only 1
2 and 3
1 and 3
1, 2 and 3
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is correct.
The formal name of Mangalyaan was the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM).
It was launched by ISRO aboard PSLV-C25 on 5 November 2013.
The spacecraft was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on 24 September 2014.
Statement 2 is not correct.
India was not the second country after the USA to place a spacecraft in orbit around Mars.
India became the fourth space power/agency to successfully reach Mars. The Soviet space programme, NASA and the European Space Agency had achieved success in Mars missions before India.
India was the first Asian country to successfully place a spacecraft in Martian orbit.
Statement 3 is correct.
India became the first country in the world to successfully place a spacecraft in Martian orbit on its very first attempt.
MOM was initially designed for a mission life of about six months, but it operated for approximately eight years.
After communication with the spacecraft was lost in 2022, the mission was considered non-recoverable.