Indian Mars Mission Launched, Tendulkar Farewell Mission Begins Tomorrow!

India's maiden mission to Mars was successfully launched today with its polar rocket placing the Mars spacecraft precisely into an intended Earth orbit in its first-ever historic inter-planetary odyssey. The ‘Mangalyaan’ or Mars Orbiter was launched on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at Sriharikota, on the Andhra Pradesh coast, at 14.38 Indian time. The mission is a bid to reach the Red Planet in September 2014 and test the Martian atmosphere for hydrogen and methane gases. As the launch vehicle soared space-ward scientists from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) could be heard shouting "Buriah!" – Brilliant! All prominent leaders and personalities have been showering praise and congratulations on these worthy Indian scientists. The mission will cost $73 million (£45 million), compared with the United States’ ‘Curiosity’ mission to Mars, which launched in 2011 at a cost of $2.5 billion (£1.56 billion). With this relatively low cost mission India becomes only the fourth nation of the world to achieve this milestone.

And then, Sachin Tendulkar Farewell Series begins tomorrow at the spectacular Eden Gardens. His 199^th and the first Test between India and West Indies starts tomorrow with much more interest focused on the master-blaster rather than on competitive cricket. Sachin fever has been raging in Kolkata since the cricket legend arrived there on Sunday. Adoring fans have been following him everywhere from the airport to the net practice at the Eden Gardens. A string of events have been organized throughout the last three days including a statue of Sachin Tendulkar. Various innovative plans are afoot during the Test match. Meantime at the Mumbai end where Sachin’s 200^th Test is scheduled organizers are saying that what is being planned will be far more spectacular than what is going to unfold in Kolkata. Well, the legend rightfully deserves the attention although you may feel tempted to call it hype. Meantime it’s better to stay tuned and catch the action the second last time as far as the best batsman of the world is concerned.