14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) say that the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft which launched recently towards the Red Planet has suffered a minor engine glitch in low-Earth orbit. The error occurred as the spacecraft was changing its altitudes ahead of its imminent departure towards Mars.
Usually, space agencies send their orbiters on a direct path to Mars, but ISRO made theirs so heavy that the PSLV-XL delivery system used to boost the vehicle into space could only take it into Earth's orbit, Space reports.
This means that the 1.5-ton spacecraft will have to perform a series of six engine burns to boost its orbit before being able to depart. MOM was launched on November 5, 2013, and is scheduled to achieve orbital insertion around Mars on September 24, 2014.
Since reaching orbit, the orbiter carried out three successful engine burns, but the fourth led to a small error, which saw the spacecraft halting its ascent before reaching its designated altitude. An extra burn was programmed for, and executed on, Monday, and the procedure fixed the altitude issue.