President Pranab Mukherjee said India will launch its first space mission to Mars this year, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

The Indian Space Research Organisation will also put in orbit the first of seven satellites of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), India’s version of the Global Positioning System.

“Several space missions are planned for 2013, including India’s first mission to Mars and the launch of our first navigational satellite,” Mukherjee said in his maiden address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the start of the budget session.

The Mars Orbiter mission is scheduled for launch in October and will look for signatures of life and reasons for loss of atmosphere on the red planet.

India will put in orbit a spacecraft using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the satellite will undertake a 300-day journey to Mars. It is expected to be put into the Martian orbit in September 2014.

Mukherjee said the space programme epitomises India’s scientific achievements and benefits the country in a number of areas.

“The launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on Sept 9, 2012 marked our 100th space mission. The country’s first remote sensing satellite RISAT-1 was also launched last year,” he said.

- Bernama