Zee Media Bureau\Philaso G Kaping
Sriharikota: The orbit of the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft has been raised further successfully today, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
The second of the six orbit raising manoeuvres started at 02:18:51 hrs (IST) today, further raising the apogee from 28814 km to 40186 km by firing the 440 Newton Liquid Engine of the spacecraft for 570.6 seconds.
The Mars Orbiter spacecraft was launched into an elliptical earth orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, on November 05, 2013.
The first orbit-raising manoeuvre of the spacecraft was performed on November 07, with a burn time of 416 seconds.
The 1,340-kg spacecraft will orbit earth for nearly a month before picking up the necessary velocity to break free from Earth’s gravitational pull.
“Further orbit raising manoeuvre using the 440 Newton Liquid Engine are planned in the coming few days following which the spacecraft will be put on Mars Transfer Trajectory on December 01, 2013. This enables Mars Orbiter spacecraft to travel to the vicinity of Mars in September 2014 after a 300 day journey in deep space,” said ISRO.
