The Indian space agency had a good week both in its maiden inter-planetary venture and in its efforts to provide the country its very own satellite based navigation system.

An important milestone was notched in India's mission to Mars lovingly as it crossed the halfway mark of its arduous journey on April 9, 2014 morning at 9.50 am. Launched on November 5, 2013 it has travelled some 337.5 million kilometres till now and is expected to rendezvous with the Red Planet on September 24, 2014 becoming the farthest any Indian object has ever travelled.

Called `Mangalyaan’ it was made at a mere cost of Rs 4500 million (about USD 70 million) and it is the cheapest inter planetary mission ever to be conceived by humans. The main objective is to look for signatures of life on mars and to fulfil India's deep desire to beat its regional rival China in reaching Mars. The latter seems on track as really nothing can really stop it from reaching near Mars thanks to the nature of planetary forces and the precise orbit injection by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).The journey to Mars is tough to say the least. Till date 51 missions have been launched and 27 have failed. If India reaches Mars it would be the first 'country' to achieve it on its maiden flight. Till date only USA, Russia and the European Space Agency have successfully reached the Red Planet.

India today invests just about $ 1 billion annually in the ISRO which is the custodian of all space technology for the country. It was set up in 1969 and today employs about 16,000 people.