MOM Is Headed to Mars!

Twelve days after NASA's MAVEN spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and immediately embarked on a 10-month journey to the Red Planet, India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) probe finally left Earth's orbit today (despite launching to space almost two weeks before MAVEN did...on November 5) and is also headed for the cold, crimson-colored world as well. In case you're wondering why it took so long for MOM to enter an interplanetary trajectory, it's because India didn't have the luxury of having their Mars-bound craft lift off on a powerful Atlas V rocket like MAVEN did (just so I won't completely sound like an arrogant American, the Atlas V depends on Russian-built RD-180 engines to soar off the pad)...and instead have to rely on several engine burns throughout this month to boost MOM's orbit to the point where it would finally be freed from Earth's gravity. Despite the fact that MAVEN had a considerable head start on MOM, both will reach Mars next September; MOM entering Martian orbit on September 14 and MAVEN following suit eight days later. Either way, the Russians must be pouting over other nations knowing how to get Martian spacecraft out of Earth's orbit and not them (which is ironic if you want me to mention the RD-180 again). I kid.

EDIT (December 3): Based on a tweet from MAVEN's Twitter feed, MOM will arrive at Mars two days (on September 24) after MAVEN does. My bad.


Indian Space Research Organisation / Astro0