ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission set for 5 November launch

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch its prestigious mission to Mars – Mars Orbiter Mission - from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, at 2:36 pm on 5 November.

ISRO will use an advanced version of its highly-proven, four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, called the PSLV-XL, for the Rs450-crore `Mangalyaan' mission.

ISRO's launch authorisation board, which met at Sriharikota on Tuesday, announced the decision.

''The launch of India's first interplanetary probe, Mars Orbiter Spacecraft onboard PSLV-C25 (in its XL version), is scheduled on November 5, 2013 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.

The lift-off time is at 14:36 hrs IST,'' ISRO said in a brief statement.

The launch window will now open on 28 October and close on 19 November against the earlier set date of 21 October to 28 October, for operational reasons.

ISRO deferred the launch date after Nalanda, one of the two vessels of the Shipping Corporation of India that will track the PSLV, failed to reach its specified location near the Fiji Islands due to poor weather in the South Pacific Ocean.

The ships, Yamuna and Nalanda, are now positioned in the South Pacific Ocean.

Also, ISRO said, Mars would be closest to earth between 28 October and 19 November, a rare occurrence that will repeat only after 780 days.

All five science instruments on the mission have been converged and the 15-kg Mars Orbiter spacecraft mated to the PSLV-C25 launch vehicle.

ISRO has now started preparations for fuelling of the rocket and final checks on the spacecraft.

"The integration of the spacecraft with the launcher PSLV-C25 is completed and the heat shield closure activity is also completed," ISRO director of publicity D P Karnik said.

The main objective of the Mars Orbiter Mission is to demonstrate ISRO's capability to carry out interplanetary probes. The mission will see ISRO attempt to get out of the sphere of influence of the earth for the first time.

The mission will not use a direct trajectory to the Red Planet. Rather, it would initially fly into the earth's orbit, from where it will use its own propulsion system to enter the trans-Martian trajectory over a period of about 25 days.

The mission will take 299 days in all to take the spacecraft to the Mars orbit.

The flight will be a demonstration mission aimed at assessing future spacecraft and mission design needs. If successful, India would becomer the fourth nation to have sent a mission to Mars after the US, former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency.

NASA is incidentally is set to launch its latest Mars orbiter Maven on 18 November.