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The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said that filling of monomethyhydrazine into the fourth stage of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C25 for the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has been completed.
This comes few hours later, Isro commenced the 56 hr 30 min countdown of Mission commenced at 06:08 hrs (IST) on Sunday morning.
Isro officials have said that the countdown started as per schedule at 06.08 a.m on Sunday and is proceeding smoothly.
The PSLV C25 is expected to take off from the spaceport of Sriharikota, around 100 kms from Chennai. The spacecraft, PSLV C25, will carry India’s first inter-planetary satellite, the Mars Orbiter Mission, which is scheduled to lift off at 2.38 pm on November 5, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR ) at Sriharikota.
The Launch Authorisation Board, which met on November 1 gave its nod for the launch of the Mission after the successful conduct of a launch rehearsal the previous day.
The spacecraft is expected to take over 40 minutes to inject the satellite into Earth’s orbit from the time it takes off.
Isro's deep space communications facility at Byalalu in Karnataka and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) ground stations in Goldstone (California), Madrid (Spain), and Canberra (Australia) will help Isro to achieve precision tracking of the spacecraft during its voyage to Mars and its injection into an orbit around the planet.
On Tuesday, two ships -- SCI Nalanda and SCI Yamuna -- owned by the Shipping Corporation of India took their positions to track the PSLV flight from the southern Pacific Ocean.
“They will look for two crucial events during the launch ---- the ignition of the fourth stage of the PSLV and the separation of the spacecraft as it is injected into Earth-orbit,” Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan said in an interview.
The Mars orbiter will be the first Isro’s first spacecraft to exit the sphere of the Earth’s influence, to the tune of around 925,000km, and enter a heliocentric cruise phase where the gravitational tugs of the Sun and the other planets will dominate. The 10-month journey will be crucial and challenging and reports noted that less than half the around 50 spacecraft sent by other countries towards Mars have been able to completed it.
The Isro's spacecraft is expected to approach Mars in September 2014.
