Bangalore (ISJ): India?s Mars Orbiter Mission or Mangalyaan, launched on Tuesday (Nov. 5) is functioning smoothly according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The 1,350 kg robotic satellite was injected into Earth?s orbit in a perfect launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. It is currently on its first round around the Earth.
The spacecraft will orbit around Earth five times, before entering into Sun-centric orbit on December 01. According to real time Satellite Tracking website www.n2yo.com, Mangalyaan was over Sudan in the African continent at 1600 hrs on Wednesday (Nov. 06). It however, will not fly over India, as its trajectory would cross Indian Ocean. The spacecraft was at a perigee (closest point from Earth) of 264.1 km and an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 23,903.6 km with a degree of inclination of 19.3 degree.
Meanwhile, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited says, the structural assemblies and four types of welded propellant tankages for the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25) were contributed by it. In a press release, HAL Chairman Dr. RK Tyagi said, the company had also delivered bare satellite structure and deck panel to ISRO. The satellite structure is an assembly of composite and metallic honeycomb sandwich panels with a central composite cylinder. The honeycomb panels and the composite cylinder were supplied by HAL?s Composite Manufacturing Division and the structural assembly work carried out at its Aerospace Division. The payload, propellant systems, solar panels etc were integrated into the bare structure by ISRO.
