The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) trusted workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL) launched India’s first Solar Mission, Aditya-L1 from Sriharikota Range on Saturday.
Aditya-L1 started generating the power.
The solar panels are deployed.The first EarthBound firing to raise the orbit is scheduled for September 3, 2023, around 11:45 Hrs. IST pic.twitter.com/AObqoCUE8I
— ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023
The Project Director of Aditya L1 Mission, Nigar Shaji said that, “it was a dream come true”. She said that Aditya L1 had been sent to the intended orbit and the solar panels were deployed in a flawless attempt. She said that it will take 125 days of long journey to reach L1 and said that the outcome will be magnificent for the helio physicists in the Country.
The Chairman of ISRO, S. Somanath said that ISRO can proudly acknowledge today’s solar mission. He said that the achievement of the Chandrayaan mission was also remarkable for ISRO where the rover has moved 100 meters away from the lander on the southern part of the moon. It will be put to one or two days of sleep before the next experiment.
Aditya L1 is the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun. Through various orbit raising manoeuvres and the cruise phase over about the next four months, the spacecraft shall be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth.
A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time.
The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors.
The Aditya L1 Mission is expected to provide the most crucial information to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particles and fields etc.