India’s Mars-bound spacecraft, which launched earlier this week, has successfully carried out initial manoeuvres in earth orbit, space agency officials said today.

The Mangalyaan Mars orbiter performed two firings with its liquid fuel motors yesterday and early today, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spokesperson DP Karnik said.

“The firings are part of Mangalyaan’s five orbit-raising manoeuvres to enable the spacecraft to build velocity to break out of earth’s gravitational pull. Mangalyaan will be put on the Mars
transfer trajectory on Dec 1,” Karnik said.

According to ISRO, the Mangalyaan will arrive in the vicinity of the Red Planet in September 2014 after around 300 days of deep space travel.

When it is near Mars, the motors will be fired for a final time to slow the craft down and enable it to enter a Martian orbit.

The Mangalyaan, meaning ‘Mars craft’ in Hindi, is part of India’s first inter-planetary mission, costing about US$80 million.

If the spacecraft completes its mission as planned, India’s space agency will become the fourth in the world - after those in the United States, Europe and the former Soviet Union - to undertake
successful missions to the Red Planet. More than half of all missions to Mars have failed.

- dpa