India’s Mangalyaan probe leaves orbit and heads for Mars

New Delhi, Dec 1 (EFE). — The Mangalyaan satellite, which was launched last month, left the Earth’s orbit on Sunday and began its 300day voyage to Mars, the Indian space agency said.

“The transMars injection was completed successfully,” the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, said in a statement posted on its Web site.

The spacecraft’s propulsion system was activated at 12:49 a.m. and remained on for 23 minutes, sending the probe toward Mars, the ISRO said.

The Mangalyaan satellite is expected to reach Mars on Sept. 24, 2014, after traveling 400 million kilometers (nearly 250 million miles).

The satellite will orbit Mars, studying the planet’s surface, topography and atmosphere, and focusing on the search for methane, one of the signs of the existence of life.

The rocket carrying Mangalyaan was launched on Nov. 5 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, an island in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

India is the sixth country to try to reach Mars, with only the United States, Russia and the European Space Agency successfully reaching the “Red Planet.”

A Japanese mission failed in 2003 and a Chinese mission failed in 2011, and 23 of the 40 missions to Mars have not made it to the planet.

The $73 million mission was designed by about 1,000 scientists over 15 months.

India launched its first lunar probe in 2008 and plans its first manned space mission in 2016.