Mangalyaan successfully cruising towards Mars as it leaves Earth's orbit
Mangalyaan being launched from Sriharikota
New Delhi: India's maiden spacecraft to Mars has successfully left the Earth's orbit and is now cruising towards Mars after a crucial and tricky midnight operation. The complex operation began as planned at 49 minutes after midnight and lasted 23 minutes in which the spacecraft was given a nudge so that it escapes the Earth's gravity.
Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO says the operation went off successfully and the Mangalyaan has left the Earth's embrace and is now on course on the highway to Mars.
"The trans-Mars injection has been completed successfully," K Radhakrishnan, Chairman of ISRO, told NDTV.
Launched on November 5, 2013 from Sriharikota, the Mangalyaan had till now been rotating around the Earth. It was given that final extra kick through a sling shot mechanism as it began its over 750 million kilometer journey to Mars. Each day, the Mangalyaan will cover over 2.5 million km hurtling into space till it is slowed down to be captured by Mars.
About 250 scientists from ISRO monitored its health. The command for the spacecraft to leave the Earth's orbit and head into the Sun-centric orbit was executed from the Mission Operations Center in Bangalore.
The success of the mission can be assessed only when the spacecraft reaches the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014. Once it reaches Mars, the Mangalyaan will revolve around the 'Red Planet' for six months and announce India's triumph.
However, the risks are many and no country till date has succeeded in reaching Mars on its maiden attempt. More than half of all missions to Mars have ended in failure, including China's in 2011 and Japan's in 1998.
The Rs 450-crore mission to Mars has made international headlines, at least in part for its cost-efficiency.
From ISRO Website
01-12-2013
- Trans Mars Injection (TMI) operations completed successfully. The liquid engine burn time was 1328.89 sec and the imparted incremental velocity was 647.96 m/sec.
- Trans Mars Injection (TMI) operations in progress.
- Trans Mars Injection (TMI) operation began at 00:49 hrs (IST) on Sunday Dec 01, 2013.
- Forward rotation of spacecraft, to put it into the right orientation to perform Trans Mars Injection (TMI) operation has been completed successfully at 00:30 hrs IST on Dec 1, 2013
16-11-2013
- The fifth orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:27 hrs(IST) on Nov 16, 2013, with a burn Time of 243.5 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 118642km to 192874km.
12-11-2013
- Fourth supplementary orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 05:03:50 hrs(IST) on Nov 12, 2013, with a burn Time of 303.8 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 78276km to 118642km.
11-11-2013
- In the fourth orbit-raising operation conducted this morning (Nov 11, 2013), the apogee (farthest point to Earth) of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was raised from 71,623 km to 78,276 km by imparting an incremental velocity of 35 metres/second (as against 130 metres/second originally planned to raise apogee to about 100,000 [1 lakh] km). The spacecraft is in normal health. More..
09-11-2013
- The third orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:10:43 hrs(IST) on Nov 09, 2013, with a burn time of 707 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 40186km to 71636km.
08-11-2013
- The second orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 02:18:51 hrs(IST) on Nov 08, 2013, with a burn time of 570.6 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 28814 km to 40186 km.
07-11-2013
- The first orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:17 hrs(IST) on Nov 07, 2013 has been successfully completed More..
05-11-2013
- PSLV-C25, in its twenty fifth flight, successfully launches Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft from SDSC SHAR Sriharikota
