DHAKA: India’s Mars spacecraft was ‘successfully’ raised into a higher orbit around Earth early on Tuesday, after a brief engine failure during an earlier attempt.

The space agency said, reports The Straits Times.

The Mars Orbiter Mission, which blasted off on November 5 for a 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 Tuesday, the spacecraft completed a fourth repositioning to take it 100,000 kilometres from Earth, after the thruster engines failed during an attempt on Monday, leading the auto-pilot to take over.

BDST: 1403 HRS, NOV 12, 2013
RoR/BSK