ISRO successfully test fires Mars Orbiter Spacecraft's main liquid engine

The Mars Orbiter Mission will enter the red planet's atmosphere on Sept 24.

The 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) of India’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, last fired on Dec 1, 2013, was successfully fired for a duration of 3.968 seconds at 2.30 PM on Monday, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said in a statement.

This operation of the spacecraft’s main liquid engine was also used for the spacecraft’s trajectory correction and changed its velocity by  2.18 metre/second.

With this successful test firing, Mars Orbiter Insertion (MOI) operation of the spacecraft is scheduled to be performed on the morning of Sept 24 at 07:17:32 Hrs IST by firing the LAM along with eight smaller liquid engines for a duration of about 24 minutes, ISRO stated.

Launched on November 5 last year, India's Mangalyaan embarked on a 680-million-km journey and has been successfully braving the rough weather in space.

Now during the last 300-days journey towards the red-planet, the main engine had been lying in dormant stage.

Now it is required to be checked before MOM enters in Martian atmosphere.

Though the rockets were in “idle” for a long-time, scientists were confident about its performance.

The big rocket motor on board Mangalyaan had performed flawlessly in over two dozen earlier missions since 1992, and scientists were confident that this time too, things would go as per plan.

“The engine will be fired for nearly 4 seconds and almost half a kg of fuel will be needed for this operation," ISRO’s scientific secretary Koteshwar Rao is quoted by media as saying.

Now, that the Mangalyaan has passed the test, countdown has begun for the final phase. ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan said, ISRO now gears up for the D-day.

In 48 hours, on Sept 24, MOM’s eight thrusters will be fired to slow down Mangalyaan and it will be injected into a safe orbit around the Red Planet.

According to ISRO, if the spacecraft makes it, India will be the fourth after US, Russia and Europe to reach the Red planet.

Once in orbit, the craft’s five payloads will take pictures and collect data for the next six months.