India's Mars Orbiter leaves earth's gravity

India's maiden spacecraft to Mars left earth's gravity early Sunday to enter into the sun's orbit on way to the red planet through the inter-planetary system.

"The Orbiter departed from earth at 12:49 a.m. to enter the solar orbit after 23 minutes for its 680-million km voyage over nine months to reach Mars in Sep 2014," a senior space agency official told IANS.

Scientists at the Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (Istrac) of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) here fired the engine onboard to sling the spacecraft into the sun's orbit precisely in a complex operation.

"The insertion of the Orbiter into the helio (sun) centric phase will take place after 23 minutes around 01:15 a.m. to traverse the 680-million km for its odyssey to Mars over the next 280 days," ISRO director Deviprasad Karnik said from the mission control.