Aditya-L1 Launch highlights: India's sunshine moment as mission now in space

The United States and the European Space Agency (ESA) have sent numerous solar probes, beginning with NASA's Pioneer programme in the 1960s. But if successful, the latest mission from the ISRO will be the first by any Asian nation to be placed in solar orbit.

Unlike Chandrayaan 3, which softly touched down near the lunar south pole, the solar probe will be positioned at the first Lagrange point in the Earth-Sun system instead.

The distance to the L1 point is 1.5 million km, a span anticipated to be traversed by the spacecraft through various manoeuvres over the course of 4 months, ISRO said. Remarkably, this distance represents only 1 per cent of the overall 150 million km separation between Earth and the Sun.

Aditya L1 launch live stream

ISRO has provided streaming links to watch the launch of India's first solar mission scheduled for September 2. The live feed will start at 11:20am.

• ISRO website: Click here or search- https://isro.gov.in

• ISRO official YouTube channel: Search- https://www.youtube.com/@isroofficial5866

• ISRO official Facebook channel: Search- https://facebook.com/ISRO

Aditya L1 mission's detailed schedule

The entire journey from the launch to reaching L1 is expected to take approximately four months for the Aditya L1 mission. Here is a breakdown of the journey to the Sun-Earth system's L1 point.

Launch: The Aditya L1 mission will be launched by ISRO's PSLV XL rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC-SHAR), Sriharikota.

Initial Orbit: The spacecraft will be initially placed in a Low Earth Orbit.

Elliptical Orbit: The orbit will then be adjusted to become more elliptical.

Exit from Earth's Gravitational Sphere of Influence (SOI): The spacecraft will be propelled towards the L1 point using onboard propulsion. As the spacecraft moves towards the Lagrange point, it will exit Earth's gravitational Sphere of Influence.

Cruise Phase: After leaving Earth's SOI, the cruise phase of the mission will commence.

Halo Orbit: Subsequently, the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo orbit around the Lagrange point (L1).

Priests in Varanasi performed havan while Surya Namaskar and special prayers were performed at the centres of Doon Yoga Peeth in the presence of spiritual guru Acharya Bipin Joshi for the successful launch of the ISRO's Aditya L1 mission from Sriharikota.

“I'm very excited to be here at the launch of Aditya-L1 Mission. Chandrayaan-3's successful landing made us intrigued with the space events,” a visitor tells PTI.

The Liquid Propulsion System Centre (LPSC), established in 1987, has been a vital support centre for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in various space missions. It has played a pivotal role in India's space endeavours, providing liquid and cryogenic propulsion systems for PSLV and GSLV rockets. LPSC's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) has been instrumental in satellite propulsion for missions like Chandrayaan and the Mars Orbiter Mission. In the Aditya L1 Mission, LAM, with a thrust of 440 newtons, will help position the Aditya spacecraft in the Lagrangian orbit, approximately 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, marking another significant contribution to India's space exploration efforts.

As many as 23 students of Punjab government schools Friday took a flight from here to Sriharikota to attend ISRO's Aditya L1 launch event.

As India aims for the Sun on Saturday with its maiden solar expedition, ISRO's PSLV C57 will carry the Aditya L1 mission on a 125-day voyage to the Sun. The 23.10 hour countdown for the launch commenced at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Friday, ISRO said.

The launch of the country's maiden solar mission -- Aditya-L1 will be streamed live at B M Birla Planetarium on Saturday in the city, an official said here.

Citizens will get to witness the live streaming (online) of the launch of Aditya-L1 on Saturday in the B M Birla Planetarium. A science talk on the ‘Sun and Aditya-L1 mission’ will also be held, Director of BM Birla Science Centre and Planetarium K G Kumar said on Friday.

As the countdown for India's maiden solar mission Aditya-L1 began on Friday, Keerthi, the wife of a project scientist who worked for Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) payload arrived at Shriharikota to witness the launch.

"As a wife, there are lots of hardships, so when earlier lunar mission was a failure we were telling people that a lot of people have worked on that...It was sad to hear that because we see they were put through a lot of hardship. We were sad hearing that... So I pray for the success of the event," said Keerthi.

"I am very excited. My husband is a project scientist for Aditya-L1. He worked for SUIT (Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope which is one Payload in Aditya L1. It is his 7 years of hardship. He left for Pune when my son was six months old. We were living in Manipal. Today we have come to witness the launch of Aditya L1," she said.

On the occasion of the launch of the Aditya L-1 Mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), renowned astronaut and author of "The Apollo Murders," Chris Hadfield, shared his insights on the mission's significance in protecting the Earth from the Sun's potentially catastrophic solar events.

Chris Hadfield drew attention to a significant historical solar event that occurred on this day in the last century, emphasizing the gravity of the Sun's power. He said, "Well, there's a terrific example in history. On this day in the last century, the worst solar event that has ever happened blasted the Earth. A huge blob of energy, of high-energy particles, smashed into the Earth... It actually set telegraph machines on fire. That's going to happen again. So when we put something like Aditya L-1 up there in between us and the Sun to sense those things, to better understand how the Sun works and the threats that it has to the Earth, it's good for everybody, for protecting us as people... So, it's a really good new scientific probe to have out there teaching us about the Sun."

Hadfield stressed the critical role of technology in modern society and said, "Everybody on Earth is counting on technology... We are counting on a really complicated interconnected global electric and data system. The electromagnetic energy that comes from the Sun is both a benefit to that, but also a huge threat to that. So, putting a new sensor in between us and the Sun, that is looking specifically at how the Sun sends out these big damaging ejections of high-energy particles, is really useful information, not just for ISRO and not just for the Indian space program, but it's something that is sort of vital."

The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), a crucial component of India's Aditya L1 solar mission, will transmit 1,440 daily images for analysis upon reaching orbit. Integrated and tested at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, VELC is the mission's largest and most challenging payload. VELC will send continuous solar images from a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1, 1.5 million km from Earth. These images will be processed at the VELC Payload Operations Centre to detect coronal mass ejections automatically and provide crucial data to the scientific community. The mission's primary focus is to understand solar phenomena and their impact. VELC's precision mirror allows for high-resolution imaging of the solar corona, making it a valuable asset for solar astrophysics research.

Aditya-L1 will carry seven different payloads to have a detailed study of the sun, four of which will observe the light from the sun and the other three will measure in-situ parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or PSLV, is a family of expendable launch vehicles developed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). PSLV-C57 is the 59th flight of PSLV and the 25th mission using PSLV-XL configuration. The launch vehicle is 44.4m high with a lift-off mass of 321 tonnes.

Initially, Aditya-L1 will be placed in a Low Earth Orbit, Subsequently, the orbit will be made more elliptical and later the spacecraft will be launched towards the Lagrange point (L1) by using onboard propulsion.

As the spacecraft travels towards L1, it will exit the Earth's gravitational Sphere of Influence (SOI). After exit from SOI, the cruise phase will start and subsequently, the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo orbit around L1.

Aditya L1 spacecraft is planned to 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. Putting Aditya-L1 in the halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 would allow the satellite to continuously view the Sun without any occultation or eclipses. L1 is one of the five Lagrange points in the gravitational system of two large bodies, such as the Earth and the Moon or the Earth and the Sun. These points are named after the French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who studied them in the 18th century.

For the Earth-Sun system, L1 would be the point between Earth and the Sun, where the gravitational pull from the Earth and the Sun are balanced. One of the unique characteristics of L1 is that objects placed there can essentially "hover" relative to the Earth's position in its orbit around the Sun. This property makes Lagrange Point 1 an interesting location for various space missions and satellite deployments. Read more…

Aditya-L1, set to launch from Sriharikota, will be India's inaugural solar space observatory, studying the sun's activities and their impact on space weather from a strategic orbit around Lagrangian Point 1. The 23.10-hour countdown for the launch of Aditya L1 onboard PSLV C57 commenced on Friday.