ISRO has postponed its first Mars Orbiter Mission (Â Mangalyaan) by a week. The launch which was scheduled for October 28 would take off sometimes in the first week of November.
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 Delay has been caused due to recent Weather Conditions which delayed an associated ship from reaching Fiji Islands. The Ship has terminals to track the rocket.
A PSLV Rocket would lift off India’s Mars Probe (Mangalyaan)
“Of the two ships Nalanda and Yamuna, only Yamanua has reached Fiji. Nalanda has not reached there. It is expected to reach Fiji only around October 21. So the Mars mission will not happen Oct 28. As the launch window is between Oct 28-Nov 19, we will decide on the revised date after the ship reaches Fiji,” Indian Space Research Organisation ( Isro) chairman K Radhakrishnan said.
He said the delay will be by a week and by October 22, the launch date is expected to be known.
The ship has terminals to track the rocket, which has a coasting period of around 20 minutes beyond the visibility of existing ground stations.
One of the main objectives of the first Indian mission to Mars is to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.
The American NASA/JPL is providing communications and navigation support to this mission with their Deep Space Network facilities.