Mangalyaan's Mars Color Camera sends first pictures of earth

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said that Mars Orbiter "Mangalyaan" has beamed back its first pictures of Earth, capturing the Indian subcontinent and parts of Africa.

It has sent back an image of the severe cyclonic storm 'Helen' hurtling towards the coast of Andhra Pradesh.

ISRO said the picture is from the Mars Color Camera, fitted on Mars Orbiter spacecraft taken on Tuesday at 1.50 p.m. from over 67,975 km altitude with a resolution of 3.53 km.

This is the first time after launch that an instrument on board has been checked for its operation.

Earlier, ISRO had performed all five orbit raising manoeuvres planned on the Mars Orbiter and raised the apogee of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km.