In a major milestone in India's space
history, ISRO's Mars Orbiter mission today ventured out of Earth's
sphere of influence, beginning its 300-day journey to the Red planet.
The critical manoeuvre to place the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft or
'Mangalyaan' in the Mars Transfer Trajectory was successfully carried
out almost an hour past midnight and marked the first step it its 680
million-kilometre-long voyage to its destination. "Following the
completion of this manoeuvre, the Earth orbiting phase of the spacecraft
ended. The spacecraft is now on a course to encounter Mars after a
journey of about 10 months around the Sun," the Bangalore-headquartered
Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement. During this
manoeuvre, which began at 00:49 hours, the spacecraft's 440 Newton
liquid engine was fired for about 22 minutes providing a velocity
increment of 648 metres/second to the spacecraft. ISRO performed the
trans-Mars injection, a "crucial event" intended for hurling its Mars
Orbiter spacecraft into the planned orbit around the Sun. It has
planned four mid-course corrections in case of any deviation along its
path to the Martian orbit before its expected arrival in the orbit of
the Red planet in September 2014. It had performed five orbit-raising
manoeuvres on its Mars Orbiter, raising the apogee (farthest point from
Earth) of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh kilometres, before it
performed the "mother of all slingshots." The spacecraft is being
continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO
Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with
support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennae at Byalalu here,
the space agency added. ISRO's PSLV C 25 successfully injected the
1,350-kg 'Mangalyaan' Orbiter (Mars craft) into the orbit around the
earth some 44 minutes after a text book launch at 2.38 PM from the
Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on November 5, marking the
successful completion of the first stage of the Rs 450-crore mission.
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