Indian Space Research Organisation scientists in Bangalore have raised the orbit of the Mars spacecraft in the first of a series of manoeuvres to ready the orbiter for its 400-million km journey to the red planet.
A team of 150 scientists at Isro Telemetry Tracking and Command Network started the operation at 1.17 am. After about seven minutes of firing the orbiter’s engine, they increased the apogee (its farthest orbital point from earth) from 23,550 km to 28,825 km. In an elliptical orbit, the spacecraft will be just 252 km away at its nearest point to Earth (perigee).
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