India will launch its first mission to Mars this year, President Pranab Mukherjee said, as the emerging Asian nation looks to play catch-up in the global space race alongside the US, Russia and its giant neighbour China.

“Several space missions are planned for 2013, including India’s first mission to Mars and the launch of our first navigational satellite,” Mukherjee told Parliament.

India will send a satellite in October via an unmanned spacecraft to orbit the Red Planet, blasting off from the southeastern coast in a mission expected to cost about €62.8 million, mission scientists say.

The spacecraft, which will be made in India, will take nine months to reach Mars and then launch itself in an elliptical orbit about 500 kilometres from the planet.

“The mission is ready to roll,” Deviprasad Karnik, a scientist from the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. (Reuters)

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