On Wednesday evening, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM) went well past the half-way mark to the red planet.
After escaping earth’s influence, MoM, which was launched from Sriharikota onboard PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013, is now in the Sun’s influence region called the helio-centric trajectory.
“On Wednesday at 9.50 am, India’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft crossed the half-way mark of its journey to the red planet along the designated helio-centric trajectory,” the Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement.
India’s Deep Space Network, aided by Nasa, has been tracking the orbiter since its launch and six orbit raising manoeuvres after which it left the Earth orbit on December 1 last year. “Some 250 scientists have been working on the last big exercise before the spacecraft left the earth's orbit,” Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan said. Through six orbit raising exercises, scientists have brought the apogee (the spacecraft’s farthest point from Earth) from the initial 25,000 kilometre to 1.92 lakh kilometre.
India is among an elite club of nations to take up interplanetary probes. Of the 51 Mars missions by the US and Russia/ USSR, only 21 had been successful.
After escaping earth’s influence, MoM, which was launched from Sriharikota onboard PSLV-C25 on November 5, 2013, is now in the Sun’s influence region called the helio-centric trajectory.
“On Wednesday at 9.50 am, India’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft crossed the half-way mark of its journey to the red planet along the designated helio-centric trajectory,” the Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement.
India’s Deep Space Network, aided by Nasa, has been tracking the orbiter since its launch and six orbit raising manoeuvres after which it left the Earth orbit on December 1 last year. “Some 250 scientists have been working on the last big exercise before the spacecraft left the earth's orbit,” Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan said. Through six orbit raising exercises, scientists have brought the apogee (the spacecraft’s farthest point from Earth) from the initial 25,000 kilometre to 1.92 lakh kilometre.
India is among an elite club of nations to take up interplanetary probes. Of the 51 Mars missions by the US and Russia/ USSR, only 21 had been successful.
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