On August 23, ISRO achieved a historic milestone, and this past Saturday at 11.50 am, from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, they reached another significant achievement by launching India’s ambitious solar mission, Aditya-L1. During this launch, the Aditya- L1 satellite elegantly separated from the PSLV rocket’s upper stage, with ISRO chairman S Somanath proclaiming the mission a resounding success.
Following a 125-day journey covering a distance of approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, the spacecraft is now on the verge of entering a Halo orbit around Lagrangian point L1, which is the nearest point to the Sun. Aditya-L1 represents India’s inaugural satellite mission dedicated to studying the Sun, with its ultimate destination being the first Lagrange point (L1) in the Sun-Earth system.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is playing a pivotal role in India’s pioneering foray into solar observations from space. ESA is providing invaluable assistance by offering deep space communication services and aiding ISRO in validating crucial new flight dynamics software.