Consider the following statements: The Mangalyaan launched by ISRO 1 is also called the Mars Orbiter Mission 2 made India the second country to have a spacecraft orbit the Mars after USA 3 made India the only country to be successful in making its spacecraft orbit the Mars in its very first attempt Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Statement 1 is correct. Mangalyaan is the popular name for ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), launched on 5 November 2013 by PSLV-C25 and inserted into Mars orbit on 24 September 2014.

Statement 2 is wrong. India was not the second country after the USA to put a spacecraft in Mars orbit. The Soviet Union's Mars 2 and Mars 3 entered Mars orbit in 1971, and the USA's Mariner 9 did so in 1971 too, so the USA and USSR both came before India. India became the fourth space agency to reach Mars orbit, after NASA, the Soviet program and ESA (Mars Express, 2003). Its real distinction was being the first Asian nation to do so.

Statement 3 is correct. MOM succeeded on its first attempt, which no other agency had managed. Many Mars missions had failed earlier, including several Soviet and Japanese attempts.

Core concept: Space missions and national achievements in space science. For Mains GS-III (Science and Technology), MOM is a good case study in low-cost interplanetary missions, with a budget far below comparable missions elsewhere.

Trap: Aspirants often accept the 'second country' claim from popular media. The correct framing is 'first Asian nation' and 'first attempt success'.