India to launch Mars orbiter in 2013

With New Delhi's iconic Red Fort as a backdrop, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced Wednesday his country has set its sights on the Red Planet. In a Wednesday speech marking India's independence day, Singh said his government has approved plans to put an unmanned probe in orbit around Mars. The mission "will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology," he said. It's an ambitious goal, with a planned launch in November 2013 for a 10-month flight, said Kiran Karnik, a former official with the Indian Space Research Organization. "By the time the mission gets there, Mars will be comparatively the closest," Karnik told CNN's sister network CNN-IBN. "So there's a small window in which we need to make a launch and that's the reason the mission has to go up next year."