India's mission to Mars experienced a technical issue early on, but it has since been resolved and the spacecraft is operating smoothly once again, BBC News reported.

The glitch occurred Monday when the orbiter's engine would not give it the needed burst to raise its orbit around the Earth. The craft was in danger of not reaching its desired orbit, but the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced it had successfully attained its necessary orbit.

The Mangalyaan (Hindi for "Mars craft") orbiter launched successfully into space last week and is tentatively on track to reach the Red Planet sometime in late 2014. ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said the craft has challenges ahead and will have a very important checkpoint to pass in late next year.

"The biggest challenge will be precisely navigating the spacecraft to Mars," he previously told the Associated Press. "We will know if we pass our examination on Sept. 24, 2014."

The Mars Orbiter Mission, known as MOM, hit a snag at 71,623 km high and needed to reach its target of 100,000 km. The mission team found the problem in the liquid fuel thruster, but the spacecraft made up for the failed engine with a backup one early Tuesday.

"All is well and operations completed as planned. The final orbit of the spacecraft will be known in a few hours," Radhakrishnan told Pallava Bagla, science editor at Indian broadcasting network NDTV, adding the "spacecraft has been put on required velocity and seems to be on track."

For the next few weeks, the orbiter will perform various tests to make sure the craft is running effectively before starting its orbit around Earth. At that time, it will circle our planet enough times to build up velocity and eventually break free of Earth's gravitational pull and head toward Mars.

If successful the rest of the way, India will be the fourth space agency ever to reach the Red Planet, following the U.S., Europe and the Soviet Union.

Related