Chennai, Sep 24 (IANS) India’s ambitious Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was in a crucial phase Wednesday morning with the country’s space scientists steering the space craft to the red planet’s orbit. The engine burn has started, authorities confirmed in their update.

Earlier, the MOM changed over to medium gain antenna and its forward rotation got started.

After rotating the Orbiter towards Mars, the main engine will be fired 24 minutes from Mars to enter the Martian orbit, which will be about 500 km from its surface and 215 million km away from the Earth in radio distance.