DHAKA: India’s Mars spacecraft suffered a brief engine failure Monday as scientists tried to move it into a higher orbit around Earth, but controllers denied any setback to the ambitious low-cost mission.

The Mars Orbiter Mission, which blasted off on November 5 for an 11-month trip to the Red Planet, is being launched on its way via an unusual ‘slingshot’ method for interplanetary journeys.

Lacking a large enough rocket to blast directly out of Earth’s atmosphere and gravitational pull, the Indian spacecraft is orbiting Earth until the end of the month while building up enough velocity to break free.

On Monday, during a fourth repositioning to take it 100,000 kilometres from Earth, the thruster engines briefly failed, leading the auto-pilot to take over, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1734 HRS, NOV 11, 2013
RoR/SRS