On November 5, 2013, India launched a spacecraft toward Mars from the space centre at Sriharikota on the east coast, and the craft, known as Mangalyaan, went into orbit around the planet in September 2014 and worked for years after its planned life had ended. The launch was the first time a country had reached Mars on its first attempt. The cost was low. The whole mission was put together with a budget smaller than that of many feature films, and it was built and launched in a little over a year.
The craft had to be sent on a long and winding path, for the rocket was not powerful enough to push it straight out to Mars, and so the engines were fired several times to raise its orbit around the earth before it broke away. The method worked. It carried a camera and instruments for measuring methane and the composition of the atmosphere, and a sensor for studying the escape of gases from the planet, and the methane that had been reported from the ground was not confirmed as strongly as had been hoped.
The mission was a matter of standing as much as of science, for it showed that a country with a modest space budget could reach a planet, and it was seen at home as a mark of the skill of its engineers. The expense was small. The government approved it as a way of showing what could be done with a limited programme, and the photographs from the first weeks were published widely.
The craft worked far longer than the six months it was designed for. It stopped sending signals in 2022 after a period without sunlight for its batteries, and the mission was declared over. The point was proved. The next Indian mission to the planet was planned with a lander and a rover, and the first attempt had set the mark for the work that followed.