Photo Taken By Mangalyaan Lands National Geographic Cover

New Delhi: Just days after finding place on the Rs 2,000 currency note, there's another high for India's Mangalyaan that completed three years in orbit this week.

In a rare admission of the global importance of India's maiden mission to Mars, a photo of the Red Planet taken by the simple, low cost camera of Mangalyaan, has found place on the cover of the venerable National Georgaphic magazine, known for its high quality images.

There are less than a dozen images of the full disc of Mars and experts acknowledge that India's Mangalyaan has taken some of the best images. More than fifty missions before Mangalyaan did not manage to take such high quality images of the full disc of the Red Planet.

India's mission cost Rs 450 crore and was made to nominally last six months but has now survived for three years beaming back data.

Scripting space history, India on September 24, 2014, had successfully placed its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet on its very first attempt, breaking into an elite club of three nations.