ISRO successfully conducted the crucial test fire of Liquid Apogee Motor of MOM

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 22 September 2014 successfully conducted the crucial test fire of Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan. The test was conducted at the ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore.

The team on 21 September 2014 conducted the crucial Trajectory Correction Manoeuver (TCM) as the LAM had not been used for nearly 300 days after the initial orbit raising manoeuvers and Trans Mars Insertion process conducted on 1 December 2013.

ISRO in its release said that the team of scientists had a perfect burn for 4 seconds using 0.5 kg of fuel to slow the spacecraft down by 2.4 metres per second so as to correct the trajectory of MOM.

With this correction, the mission will go forward as planned and the Mars Orbiter Mission will be inserted into Mars orbit on 24 September 2014.
The motor will be fired once again on 24 September 2014 for nearly 24 seconds so that the spacecraft could be inserted into the intended orbit having a diameter of 423 kilometers by 80000 kilometers around Mars.

With this insertion into the orbit, five instruments available on the satellite will study the Martian surface. The main focus of the study will be finding the presence of methane in the red planet.

In case, ISRO will succeed in injecting the spacecraft into the Martian orbit, then India will become the first country in the world to insert a spacecraft around Mars in the first attempt.