"Mangalyaan" clears rehearsal test, readies for D-day

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) officials said on Monday that MOM successfully cleared the crucial liquid engine firing test which was important in determining the fate of Mars Orbiter mission.

According to media reports, at 2:30 pm on Monday the craft’s 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor engine, the main rocket engine of the satellite, which has been lying dormant for this extended period, was successfully test-fired.

Along with that the fourth and final trajectory corrections were also performed. M Annadurai, programme director at Isro said, the test firing is like a trial.

The dormant engine has been brought back to life. ISRO said, the Mars orbiter satellite is carrying one large rocket motor and eight smaller thrusters.

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

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

Now it needed to be checked before MOM enters in Martian atmosphere on 24 September.

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 September 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.