Prime minister Narendra Modi exultant as India’s landmark achievement puts China in the shade India has become the first nation to send a satellite into orbit around Mars on its first attempt, and the first Asian nation to do so. Mission control in the southern Indian city of Bangalore received confirmation of the success at 7.41am Wednesday, local time. The satellite Mangalyaan had entered the orbit of the red planet 12 minutes earlier, but the message needed to traverse the 400m miles (650m km) to Earth. India now joins an elite club of nations who have successfully carried out interplanetary space missions, and has scored a significant point in its rivalry with China. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, who won power in May ...
September 24, 2014 at 10:00 am | News Desk