India’s First Solar Mission Aditya-L1 Enters Final ‘Halo’ Orbit; Know More About It

Hyderabad: Aditya-L1, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) maiden solar mission, successfully entered its final manoeuvre and reached its designated orbit on Saturday.

ISRO confirmed the mission’s success on X, formerly Twitter.

The spacecraft, which began this ambitious journey from ISRO’s Sriharikota launchpad on September 2 last year, has undergone four earth-bound manoeuvres and a Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) manoeuvres, all successfully. It is now parked at an optimum spot in the vastness of space from where it will have an unobstructed view of the Sun.

Taking to X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Indian space agency for the mission, which he termed it as a landmark. “India creates yet another landmark. India’s first solar observatory Aditya-L1 reaches it destination. It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists in realising among the most complex and intricate space missions. I join the nation in applauding this extraordinary feat. We will continue to pursue new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity.”

The spacecraft will now go through a commissioning phase following which it will begin observing the Sun’s corona and understand its extreme heat from a halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from the Earth.

Lagrangian Point 1 (L1) is a stable point in space where the gravitational forces of two large bodies, such as the Earth and the Sun, balance the centripetal force felt by a smaller object, like a satellite. “Aditya’s seven instruments will keep an eye on the birth of dynamic activity of our home star and monitor its influence on the near-Earth spaceweather. This great Indian space observatory will contribute to our knowledge of the Sun-Earth System, the only system in the Universe where life is proven to exist,” Prof. Dibyendu Nandi, who is associated with the Aditya L-1 mission, and led its Space Weather Monitoring and Predictions Plan committee, told IndiaToday.in.