India successfully test-fired the main engine of its Mars spacecraft Monday, setting the stage for the final manoeuvre to insert it into the Red Planet’s orbit.
Mangalyaan craft is due to cap a 300-day voyage over 666 million kilometres by entering the orbit on Wednesday.
“Main Liquid Engine test firing successful!” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Twitter.
“We had a perfect burn for four seconds as programmed. The trajectory has been corrected. The Mars Orbiter Mission will now go ahead with the nominal plan for Mars Orbit Insertion,” it said.
The main engine was kept dormant during the voyage since December, and there were some concerns whether it would fire again. ISRO scientists had prepared an alternative plan to use eight smaller thrusters in case the engine failed to respond.
“The spacecraft is healthy. It has completed 98 per cent of its journey towards Mars,” ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan told broadcaster NDTV.
If successful, India’s space agency would be the fourth – after the United States, Europe and the former Soviet Union – to get a spacecraft to Mars.
More than half of all past missions to Mars have failed.
A NASA probe named Maven entered Martian orbit late Sunday, with the goal of answering questions about the planet’s early atmosphere.
GNA
