ISRO performs last of five orbit-raising manoeuvres on Mars Orbiter

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday performed the last of the five orbit-raising manoeuvre on its Mars Orbiter, raising the apogee of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh kilomters.

In a statement, ISRO said that after the successful completion of these operations, the Mars Orbiter mission is expected to take on the crucial event of the trans-Mars injection at around 12.42 a.m. on December 1.

"The fifth orbit-raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:27 a.m. (IST).. with a burn time of 243.5 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in apogee is from 1,18,642 km to 1,92,874 km," ISRO said.

It will reach the orbit of the red planet by September 24, 2014 after taking on a voyage of over 10 months.

ISRO's PSLV-C25 successfully injected the 1,350-kilogram 'Mangalyaan' Orbiter (Mars craft) into the orbit around the earth some 44 minutes after a text book launch at 2.38 p.m. from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on November 5, marking the successful completion of the first stage of the Rs.450 crore mission.