Sriharikota (AP): India on Tuesday embarked on its maiden Mars odyssey with its polar rocket carrying Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) successfully lifting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here in its first-ever inter-planetary expedition in a bid to join a select band of nations.
The textbook lift-off of ISRO’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV C25 at 2.38 PM from the spaceport here, about 100 km from Chennai, was witnessed among others by Minister of State in PMO, V Narayanasamy, U.S. Ambassador to India Nancy Powell, Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Radhakrishnan and a host of other officials.
ISRO chairman K.Radhakrishnan said: “I am extremely happy to announce PSLV-C25 placed Mars orbiter space craft very precisely in elliptical orbit around earth.”
“This is 25th PSLV flight. Now it will be a complex mission to take the Mars orbiter from earth’s orbit to Mars orbit. I salute the ISRO team.”
The rocket carrying the India’s first Mars orbiter is being tracked from two stations, an official said Tuesday.
The Indian rocket carrying the country’s first Mars orbiter took off Tuesday from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here in Andhra Pradesh.
An official said that the coasting phase is normal and the rocket is being tracked from Biak and Port Blair.
The XL version of PSLV C 25 had carried Chandrayaan 1. the country’s maiden moon mission, in 2008.
After going around Earth for 20-25 days in an elliptical orbit (perigee of 250 km and apogee of 23,500 km), the Rs 450 crore orbiter would begin a nine-month long voyage to Mars around 12.42 AM on December 1.
It is expected to reach the red planet’s orbit by September 24, 2014 and go around in an elliptical orbit (periapsis of 366 km and apo-apsis of 80,000 km). The Mars mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) is aimed at establishing the country’s capability to reach the red planet and focus on looking for the presence of methane, an indicator of life in Mars.
The Mars Orbiter has five scientific instruments – Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA), Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS).
European Space Agency (ESA) of the European consortium, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US and Roscosmos of Russia are the three agencies which have successfully sent their missions to the Red Planet.
PM, Sonia hails Mars mission
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday hailed the launch of India’s Mars mission.
ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan told the media here that the prime minister had telephoned him to express his happiness. In a separate tweet, Manmohan Singh congratulated scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation for the successful initiation of Mars mission and wished for its successful future.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi also lauded scientists for the successful launch of Mars Orbiter Mission, saying every Indian is proud of this “outstanding scientific feat”.
“Gandhi has lauded the Indian space scientists for their successful launch of the historic Mangalyaan (Mars craft) Mission. Every Indian is proud of this outstanding scientific feat by our great scientists,” an AICC release said. (Agencies)