India's Mars Orbiter Hits Glitch, Agency Denies 'Setback'

India's Mars orbiter experienced a brief engine failure Monday as scientists attempted to move it into higher orbit around Earth.

The nation's first interplanetary probe took off November 5 in what was heralded as a major coming-of-age moment for the Indian Space Research Organization. According to the AFP, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan, is set to arrive on course through a unique "slingshot" method, slowly building the velocity needed to break free from the planet's gravitational pull throughout the next month.

The failure meant the spacecraft was elevated just 7,000 km higher into space, leaving it at 78,276 km high, or some 25 percent from the target of 100,000 km.

Indian officials have assured the public that the glitch falls far short of any kind of setback.

"The [spacecraft] is healthy and it encountered a problem when a specific redundancy test was being conducted and it failed to reach the desired velocity it was to achieve." ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan told NDTV.

According to the BBC, two coils in the liquid engine were supposed to be energized at the same time during the test. However, independent experts have told the news outlet "they were puzzled by [ISRO's] working hypothesis for the failure," saying they don't know how the coil test could have led to a loss of thrust.

"Using the primary and redundant coils of the [engine's] solenoid valve of itself should not necessarily lead to a lack of thrust," an anonymous source told science writer Paul Rincon.

"It should be a configuration they will have tested on the ground, which may mean this lack of thrust is nothing to do with the coils and that it's another issue."

Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the prime minister suggested Friday that the mission may have been better served had ISRO taken more time and "done homework" leading up to the launch, the Times of India reports. Still, C. N. R. Rao added, "Whatever they have done is a good thing."