Bengaluru:

ISRO on Sunday said it has successfully performed the first earth-bound manoeuvre of the country’s maiden solar mission, Aditya L1, from ISTRAC in Bengaluru.

The space agency also said the satellite is healthy and operating nominally.

The next manoeuvre is scheduled for September 5, 2023, around 03:00 Hrs. IST.

“Aditya-L1 Mission: The satellite is healthy and operating nominally. The first Earth-bound maneuvre (EBN#1) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. The new orbit attained is 245km x 22459 km. The next maneuvre (EBN#2) is scheduled for September 5, 2023, around 03:00 Hrs. IST,” ISRO said in an update on ‘X’, formerly Twitter.

Aditya-L1 Mission:
The satellite is healthy and operating nominally.

The first Earth-bound maneuvre (EBN#1) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. The new orbit attained is 245km x 22459 km.

The next maneuvre (EBN#2) is scheduled for September 5, 2023, around 03:00… pic.twitter.com/sYxFzJF5Oq

— ISRO (@isro) September 3, 2023

Aditya L1 was launched on Saturday from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The mission aims to study the outer atmosphere of the sun by placing India’s first solar observatory at the Sun-Earth L1 point.

L1 stands for Lagrange point 1, where the spacecraft would be stationed.

The satellite started generating power after the solar panels were deployed.

According to ISRO, Aditya-L1 will stay approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth, directed towards the Sun, which is about one per cent of the earth-sun distance. It will neither land on the Sun nor approach the Sun any closer.

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New Delhi:

After successfully soft-landing on the Moon, ISRO now has its eyes set on the Sun. With the space agency set to launch its maiden solar mission Aditya-L1 in less than two hours, the most-asked question is whether the spacecraft will “land” on the Sun.

The Aditya-L1, India’s first space observatory for solar research, will be launched at 11:50 am from the country’s main spaceport in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.

The mission is designed to provide remote observations of the solar corona and in situ observations of the solar winds. The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), the primary payload of Aditya L1 will send 1,440 images every day to the ground station for analysis after reaching the intended orbit.

But will Aditya-L1 “land” on the Sun?

The Aditya-L1 Mission will not “land” on the Sun as the blazing temperatures would make it an impossible task. It, however, will be placed in the orbit of the Sun-Earth system. The spacecraft will carry seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere, and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic particle and magnetic field detectors.

So, where is Aditya-L1 headed for?

Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (L1) – 1.5 million km from the Earth in the direction of the Sun. The satellite and the payloads will revolve around the Sun with the same relative position and will see the Sun continuously without any eclipses. This will help observe solar activities and their effect on space weather in real-time.