Mangalyaan: India's Mars satellite sends first images of Red Planet after entering orbit

ISRO's Mars Orbiter tweets 'The view is nice up here'

The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO)twitter account posted a picture of the Red Planet from a height of 7300 km, adding: “The view is nice up here”. (ISRO )

India’s space agency has released the first photo taken by its Mangalyaan satellite of Mars after it successfully entered into orbit around the planet earlier this week.

The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) twitter account posted a picture of the Red Planet from a height of 7300 km with the caption: “The view is nice up here”.

The Mars Orbiter probe has "beamed back about 10 pictures of the Red Planet's surface which show some craters", according to the Hindu newspaper. The photos are reported to be of "good quality".

The spacecraft's camera was the first of five to be switched on a few hours after it entered orbit. Other instruments on board will become operational within the next few days.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quick to respond to the tweet, telling @MarsOrbiter the view was indeed nice.

A team of ISRO scientists presented the first pictures to Mr Modi this morning, who was given the first look before they are released to the press.

The Mars Orbiter Twitter feed was set up for the Mangalyaan project launch and has already been chatting with the account set up for Nasa’s Curiosity Rover, garnering 92,000 followers after just four posts.

The cut-price mission, which cost around £50 million, is one of the cheapest of its kind and as Mr Modi pointed out earlier this year, was less expensive than the Hollywood space film Gravity. The 2013 film had an estimated budget of $100 million (£61 million).