ISRO completes third orbit-raising manoeuvres on Mars Orbiter

The Indian Space Research  Organisation (ISRO) today performed the third of a total of five orbit raising manoeuvres of the Mars Orbiter spacecraft, raising its apogee, the farthest point from Earth, to over 71,000 km.

The orbit-raising manoeuvre started at 2:10 am on Saturday and lasted 707 seconds, ISRO said, adding the spacecraft's apogee has been raised from 40,186 km to 71,636 km.

''The third orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter spacecraft, starting at 02:10:43 hrs (IST) on 9 November 2013, with a burn time of 707 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in Apogee is from 40186km to 71636km,'' ISRO said in web site statement.

ISRO first raised the Mars Orbiter spacecraft's orbit on Thursday, followed by a second orbit-raising manoeuvre on Friday, raising the apogee of the spacecraft to 40186 km.

The fourth and fifth operations would be performed on 11 and 16 November, when the perigee and apogee of the spacecraft's orbit will be raised to 1,00,000 km and 1,92,000 km, respectively.

The successful completion of these operations will out the mission on the "crucial event" of the trans-Mars trajectory around 12.42 am on 1 December.

The PSLV-C25, in its 25th flight, successfully launched the 1,350-kg Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, in Andhra Pradesh at 2:38 pm on 5 November.