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If things go as planned, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)- ‘Mangalyaan’- will enter the orbit of the Red Planet on September 24, K Radhakrishnan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said on Monday.

“If we do well, the Mars mission will arrive on September 24. It has now completed 60 per cent of its journey,” he said, addressing a felicitation given to him and other top ISRO scientists here.

“It will be a big moment for India,” he said. ISRO had launched its Mars mission on November 5, 2013. In the past 10 years, ISRO has completed 57 missions, 10 of which were undertaken in the past one year alone,” he said, lauding the efforts put in by ‘Team ISRO’.

“This year, ISRO is also looking forward to a major milestone- the experimental flight of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III (GSLV Mk-III). A prototype of the crew module for the human spaceflight will be tested aboard it,” Radhakrishnan said.

K Muraleedharan MLA, inaugurated the function. M C Dathan, director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC); K Sivan, director, GSLV, and K Kunhikrishnan, director, PSLV, were also felicitated. Other organisers of the event included IETE, Project Management Institute, Society of Aerospace Manufacturing Engineers and the Indian Institute of Materials Management.