Wednesday 6 November 2013

Science and Tech



    INDIA STARTS HISTORIC MISSION TO MARS


WORKHORSE does IT AGAIN:Soaring majestically into the sky on Tuesday from Sriharikota is PSLV- C25 with the Mars orbiter. —Photo: K. Pichumani

     PSLV puts Mars orbiter precisely into earth-orbit; trip to the Red Planet will take more than 300 days


   Ø The nation’s prestigious interplanetary mission to Mars, 40 crore km away, got off to a flying start on Tuesday when the Indian Space Research Organisation’s trusty Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25) roared off the first launch pad of the spaceport at Sriharikota at 2.38 p.m. and put the Mars orbiter precisely into its earth-orbit about 44 minutes later.

      Mission highlights

Ø Two mission highlights are: it was the longest PSLV mission at 44 minutes — the previous missions lasted about 18 minutes, and this was the silver jubilee lift-off of the PSLV. Out of the 25 launches, 24 had been successful in a row.

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