As it happened: ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft separates from PSLV-C25 successfully, enters earth's orbit

Once launched, Mars Orbiter Mission would go around the Earth for 20-25 days before embarking on a nine month voyage to the red planet.

The Mars Orbiter Mission is India's first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit. 

The Mission is primarily technological mission considering the critical mission operations and stringent requirements on propulsion and other bus systems of spacecraft.

The primary objectives of the Mars mission are to demonstrate India's technological capability to send a satellite to orbit around the planet and conduct meaningful experiments such as looking for signs of life, taking pictures of Mars and studying the Martian environment.

The 15 kgs payloads on the Mars Orbiter Mission include:

Lyman Alpha Photometer, an absorption cell photometer that measures relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen from Lyman-alpha emission in the Martian upper atmosphere.

Methane Sensor for Mars, designed to measure methane in the Martian atmosphere with PPB accuracy and map its sources.

Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser, a quadruple mass spectrometer capable of analysing the neutral composition in the range of 1 to 300 amu with unit mass resolution. 

Mars Color Camera, a tri-color camera that gives images and information about the surface features and composition of Martian surface.

Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer measures the thermal emission and can be operated during both day and night. Temperature and emissivity are two basic physical parameters estimated from thermal emission measurement.

Keeping up with tradition, Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan offered prayers to Lord Balaji at Tirupati. A model of the to-be-launched rocket and satellite was placed before the deity and blessings were sought for a successful launch. Mars Orbiter Mission is heading into space today

Photo courtesy: ANI

The scientific objective of the mission is: Exploration of Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere by indigenous scientific instruments.

The Launch Authorisation Board has approved & cleared the PSLV-C25/Mars Orbiter Mission launch on Nov 05, 2013 at 14:38 hrs IST (9:08 UTC, 4:08 a.m. EST) from the state-of-the-art Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.

This mission assumes greater significance based on the fact that Japan & China have failed with their attempts to launch similar Mars Orbiter satellites in 2003 & 2011 respectively. Although, ISRO chairman has played down any competiton with its neighbours stating that, "We are in competition with ourselves in the areas that we have charted for ourselves," K. Radhakrishnan told AFP last week. "Each country has its own priorities."

More than half of all Mars projects have failed. Only the United States, Russia and the European Union have successfully reached there.

About two weeks after India's MOM launch, NASA’s MAVEN orbiter will launch on November 18 from the Florida Space Coast.

On October 31, the launch rehearsal of PSLV-C25/Mars Orbiter Mission was completed successfully in the afternoon.

On November 3, the 56 hr 30 min countdown of the MOM commenced at 06:08 hrs.

The mission is a feather in India's cap because it is built by Indian scientists and engineers, will be launched using an indigenous rocket and carries home-grown instruments. Read why the Mars Orbiter Mission is an important milestone in India's space achievements: 

India blazes a trail with Mars mission

Cost of India's Mars Orbiter Mission will not exceed USD 70 million: Indian space scientist Jitendra Goswami. This is a fraction of foreign equivalent mission to Mars.

"She is completely wrapped in Gold (read kapton Multilayer insulation) and ready to go! Pour in your prayers and wish her BON VOYAGE!" a post on an ISRO MOM Facebook page reads.

MOM logo decoded by its Facebook page.

It is a blend of the radiant red shade of Mars and the soothing blue serenity of mother Earth! It depicts the transition of ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft from Earth to Mars and also its intended orbit around Mars. It’s impossible to miss the astronomical symbol of planet Mars embedded into the logo and also the striking similarity of shades this logo shares with the ISRO logo.

To view LIVE Streaming by Doordarshan of the MOM launch, visit » http://webcast.gov.in/live/

An image of the spacecraft with the gold foil that is used for insulation.

A complex network of ground stations have been laid out for keeping an eye on the various phases of PSLV-C25/ ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission, including the launch, earth-bound maneuvers, the Heliocentric phase as well as the Martian phase. Additionally, two ship-borne terminals have also been deployed in the southern Pacific Ocean to cover critical events during the launch phase. After satellite separation from the launch vehicle, the spacecraft operations are controlled from the Spacecraft Control Centre of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking And Command Network (ISTRAC)in Bangalore.

Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) has been built to measure the natural gas in the Martian atmosphere with PPB (particles per billion) accuracy and map its sources. Read about the indigenous sensor

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) wished ISRO good luck on Facebook. 

"As you prepare for your launch to Mars, do not forget one of the few, but important action: pass around the peanuts!" read the post by JPL on Isro's MOM Facebook page.

Highlighting the tradition of peanuts for Mars Mission at JPL, the post read: "It goes back to the 1960s with the very first missions we sent to the moon. We had seven mission attempts to go the moon before we succeeded, and on the seventh one, they had passed out peanuts in the control room. Ranger 7, which in July 1964 became the first US space probe to successfully transmit close images of the moon's surface back to the earth, made the peanuts into a tradition at JPL."

The Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission) trajectory

56-hour countdown to the launch began on Sunday, we're now less than an hour away.

If launch is a success, the spacecraft will travel for 300 days and reach Mars orbit in September 2014.

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A video that tells you more about the Mars Orbiter Mission... 

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Another video, this one is by the Indian I&B ministry. 

The Launch Control Centre is closing monitoring the parameters.

Mission Mars and Mangalyaan are trending on Twitter India.

The lift off is a success, the next 40 minutes are crucial. Photo by A Veermani

The heat-shield has been separated. 

The whole satellite is now exposed to space.

 All systems of Mars Orbiter Mission working fine, says ISRO

All three initial stages of the rocket have separated successfully. 

Mangalyaan will get separated from the launch rocket in 45 minutes.

Entire flight sequence - lift-off to satellite ejection, will take around 44 minutes, nearly double the time of normal PSLV rocket missions.

India began its space journey in 1975 with Aryabhatta using a Russian rocket and till date, it has completed over 100 space missions.

Read: India blasts off in race to Mars with low-cost mission

 Rocket is being tracked from Biak and Port Blair, an ISRO official has said.

ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission made contact with the second ship-born terminal on-board Yamuna.

The 4th stage of the #Mars Orbiter Mission launched successfully. 

Orbit insertion achieved. dna congratulates ISRO.

PM Manmohan Singh congratulates ISRO scientists for successful initiation of Mars Mission and wishes for its successful future.

ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan has declared the PSLV rocket placed the Mars-bound spacecraft Mangalyaan in the precise elliptical orbit around Earth.

  PSLV C25 placed Mars Orbiter Mission precisely in elliptical orbit about 44 minutes after lift off: ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan.

Grateful to PM for encouragement and support even during tough times: ISRO  chief Radhakrishnan

Our baby is up in space... We have a long way to go: ISRO official.

K.Radhakrishnan says: "This is 25th PSLV flight. Now it will be a complex mission to take the Mars orbiter from earth's orbit to Mars orbit."5

"I salute the ISRO team."

K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation at a press confernce at the Satish Dhawan Auditorium at Sriharikota after the launch. Photo by A Veeramani- DNA