ISRO gives health update of Aditya L1 spacecraft: ‘On its way to Sun-Earth L1'

The ISRO on September 2 launched the Aditya-L1 spacecraft from the spaceport in Sriharikota.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday informed that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, which is carrying out India's maiden mission to study the Sun, is “healthy” and "on its way to Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (L1) - which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth. The space agency added that the spacecraft successfully performed a trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM) for about 16 seconds on October 6.

ISRO launched the PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1 Mission, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun.

“…It was needed to correct the trajectory evaluated after tracking the Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuvre performed on September 19, 2023. TCM ensures that the spacecraft is on its intended path towards the Halo orbit insertion around L1,” the ISRO wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

According to ISRO, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft “continues to move ahead and the magnetometer will be turned on again within a few days.”

So far, the spacecraft has successfully undergone four earth-bound maneuvres and a Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) manoeuvre. The spacecraft has also successfully escaped the sphere of Earth’s influence.

What is the Aditya L1 mission?

Days after the successful Chandrayaan 3 mission, ISRO on September 2 launched the Aditya-L1 spacecraft from the spaceport in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota. The spacecraft is designed to provide remote observations of the solar corona and conduct in-situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point). This data would help scientists analyse the behaviour of particles surrounding Earth.

Aditya-L1 will stay approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth, directed towards the Sun, which is about 1 per cent of the Earth-Sun distance, the ISRO said.

According to ISRO chairman S Somanath, the Sun mission will take 125 days to reach the exact radius. It will neither land on the sun nor approach the sun any closer, he added.

(With inputs from agencies)