Lifted off on 2 September 2023, the Aditya-L1 mission will study the Sun from a halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth L1 and was injected into an elliptical orbit of 235x19500km around the Earth following a flight duration of 63 minutes and 20 seconds
ISRO successfully launches solar mission dubbed, Aditya L1, to study the Sun (Credit: Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)/Wikimedia Commons)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched the country’s first solar mission dubbed, Aditya Lagrangian point (L1), to study the Sun.
Lifted off on 2 September 2023, the space-based observatory will study the Sun from a halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth L1. It was injected into an elliptical orbit of 235x19500km around the Earth following a flight duration of 63 minutes and 20 seconds.
The L1 point is located about 1.5 million kilometres from the earth.
Aditya-L1 was launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) from the Second Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), which is India’s main spaceport located in Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
The country’s solar mission comes after the national space agency’s successful landing of its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the south pole of the moon.
In a X post, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: After the success of Chandrayaan-3, India continues its space journey.
”Congratulations to our scientists and engineers at @isro for the successful launch of India’s first Solar Mission, Aditya -L1.
”Our tireless scientific efforts will continue in order to develop better understanding of the Universe for the welfare of entire humanity.”
According to ISRO, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft will carry out four earth-bound orbital manoeuvres before placing in the transfer orbit towards the L1.
Aditya-L1 is equipped with seven scientific payloads indigenously developed by ISRO and national research laboratories including the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru and Inter University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune.
The latest spacecraft is estimated to reach the planned orbit at the L1 point after approximately 127 days.
Last month, India soft-landed the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft’s lander module dubbed Vikram on the moon, making the nation the fourth country to soft-land on the moon after the US, the former Soviet Union, and China.