"With today's success, India has joined an elite group of only three other agencies. India is the only country to have succeeded in the very first attempt. This was done only in three years," Modi said.
8: 09 am : Modi congratulates scientists at ISRO. 'History has been created today," he says.
8: 08 am : Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks, says "MOM and Mars have united. Mars has got MOM today".
8 02 am: MISSION SUCCESSFUL. MOM enters Martian orbit.
7:50 am: "Occultation is now behind us! Telemetry must have activated. Allow it another nerve wracking 12.5 minutes", says ISRO.
7:45 am: Scientists assume the engine burn must have ended by now. They are expecting MOM to turn towards earth enabling further communication.
7:30 am: ISRO has received confirmation of the engine burn having started on the spacecraft. Scientists applaud at the most crucial step. 'All engines of MOM are going strong', ISRO said.
7:18 am: The test firing of the main engine and eight thrusters of the spacecraft has begun. It will last for 24 minutes.
7:15 am: Mangalyaan is in the shadow of Mars. Firing of the engine to begin in few minutes.
6:56 am: The Forward Rotation has begun.
Forward rotation of MOM is essential in order to make the direction of firing opposite to the direction of motion of MOM. This enables effective braking.
4:17 am: The first step towards Mars Orbit Insertion has been covered, as ISRO conducted the changeover to the Medium Gain ANtenna. The next step will be the forward rotation, which begins at 6: 56 am
It's D-day today. India's first Mars Mission, Mangalyaan, will face its final test, of entering Mars' orbit, and if it succeeds, India will make history for being the first nation to achieve its Mars Mission on the very first attempt.
The Mars Orbit Insertion will be conducted by scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to put the orbiter into an elliptical orbit around Mars, from where it circles the planet for at least six months.
The elliptical orbit will bring the spacecraft within 365 kilometers (227 miles) of the planet's surface at its closest and 80,000 kilometers (49,700 miles) at its farthest.
The main process is that of firing the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) engine to slow down the orbiter from its current speed of 22.1 km per second to 4.4 km per second, so that it is captured into Mars' orbit.
The engine firing process will go on for 24 minutes and will begin exactly at 7: 17 am.
For ISRO's live streaming webcast of Mangalyaan's martian orbit insertion, click here.
For another webcast link for MOM's Mars Orbit Insertion (from ISTRAC, Bangalore, click here.
Here is the full schedule of the Mars Orbit Insertion.
While the technical objective of ISRO behind this mission was to develop technologies for inter-planetary missions, its scientific aim is to explore the surface and atmosphere of Mars and study the mineralogy, morphology and surface features in a mission expected to last from 6 to 10 months in orbit.
MOM will also study the atmosphere of Mars, using a methane gas sniffer, in a bid to unearth presence of Martian microbes if any.
