Isro prepares for propellant filling in PSLV C25

The Rs 450-cr Mars mission is slated for lift-off at 2:38pm on Nov 5 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota

Almost 28 hours prior to the historic moment of launching its Orbiter to Mars, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said that it has started preparing for propellant filling operation of Second Stage (PS2) in the spacecraft, which will carry Mangalyaan to the Mars.

"Mandatory checks and preparation for propellant filling operation of Second Stage (PS2) of PSLV C25 launch vehicle for ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission are in progress,” said Isro officials.

On Sunday, at 6.08 am sharp at Sriharikota, the final 56-and-a-half-hour countdown for the launch of India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) started. The Rs 450-crore Mars mission is slated for lift-off at 2.38pm on November 5 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, located on the island of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. On November 1, Isro's launch authorisation board had given the final green signal for the launch of the MOM.

Despite the cyclone threat on the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, which is heading towards Sri Lanka, the spacecraft will take off as planned as the weather is fine in the Andhra Pradesh coast, where Sriharikota located. Isro officials added weather is fine.

India will be the sixth country, after US, Russia, China, Japan and the European Union, to launch a Mars mission. Once launched, the satellite is expected to take more than 40 minutes to get injected into Earth's orbit.

The orbiter will remain in Earth orbit till December 1 when it starts its 300-day voyage to Mars. It is expected to reach the orbit of the red planet on September 24, 2014, after traversing 400 million km.

Isro officials said that Mars has drawn more space missions than the rest of the Planets in our Solar system.

However, historically, only a third of all the missions to the red planet have tasted success. Locking horns with this red dot in the skies is excruciatingly challenging in terms of the technological mettle required in the domains of Navigation, propulsion System design, deep space communication systems, ground segment and thermal and radiation management.