he Indian Space Research Organisation on Monday successfully test fired the main liquid engine of India's Mars Orbiter Mission, which has been in sleep mode for 10 months. The Mars Orbiter Mission will enter the red planet's atmosphere on September 24.
After igniting the engine, ISRO tweeted, "Mars Orbiter engine test firing must have completed. We'll get a confirmation after the communication delay of 12 minutes."
A few minutes later, ISRO tweeted, "Mars Orbiter main liquid engine test firing successful."
The 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) engine was in an idle mode on the Mars Orbiter Mission for 300 days and was fired for about four seconds and it will boost the confidence level of ISRO about the success of insertion of the spacecraft into the Martian orbit.
"This test firing of the LAM engine is like a trial, which is going to be fired for a longer duration on September 24 for Mars Orbit Insertion," a top ranking ISRO official said.
The engine was test fired for 3.968 seconds with fuel consumption of about 0.567 kg and with a decremental velocity of 2.142 meters/second.
The Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first interplanetary mission launched on November 5, 2013 by India's workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, entered into Sphere of Influence of Mars today.
On a 666 million km journey, the spacecraft escaped the earth gravity pull on December 1, 2013.
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