First earth-bound firing to raise Aditya-L1 orbit tomorrow: ISRO

Indian Space Research Organisation on Saturday said that the first earth-bound firing to raise the Aditya-L1 orbit is scheduled for September 3 around 11:45 hours.

"Aditya-L1 started generating the power. The solar panels are deployed. The first EarthBound firing to raise the orbit is scheduled for September 3 around 11:45 hours," said ISRO.

ET's ADITYA-L1 COVERAGE: TRACK DEVELOPMENTS HERE


The PSLV-C57.1 rocket carrying the Aditya-L1 orbiter lifted off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh at 11.50 am today.

"The third stage of the separation of PSLV carrying the Aditya-L1 orbiter has been completed," as per ISRO.

The launch of Aditya-L1 by PSLV-C57 is accomplished successfully, it said.

The vehicle has placed the satellite precisely into its intended orbit. India's first solar observatory has begun its journey to the destination of Sun-Earth L1 point, the agency said.

The successful launch of ISRO's maiden solar mission came on the heels of the historic lunar landing mission - Chandrayaan-3.

The ISRO successfully placed a lander on the unexplored lunar South Pole, a feat that put India in the record books as the first country to do so.

According to the agency, the Aditya-L1 mission is expected to reach the observation point in four months.

It will be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (or L1), which is 1.5 million km away from the Earth in the direction of the sun.

It will carry seven different payloads, which will conduct a detailed study of the Sun. While 4 of the payload instruments will observe the light from the Sun, the remaining 3 will measure in-situ parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields.

The largest and technically most challenging payload on Aditya-L1 is the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph or VELC.VELC was integrated, tested, and calibrated at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics' CREST (Centre for Research and Education in Science Technology) campus in Hosakote in collaboration with ISRO.

This strategic location will enable Aditya-L1 to continuously observe the sun without being hindered by eclipses or occultation, allowing scientists to study solar activities and their impact on space weather in real time.

Also, the spacecraft's data will help identify the sequence of processes that lead to solar eruptive events and contribute to a deeper understanding of space weather drivers.

Major objectives of India's solar mission include the study of the physics of solar corona and its heating mechanism, the solar wind acceleration, coupling and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, solar wind distribution and temperature anisotropy, and origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and flares and near-earth space weather.

According to the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics, the atmosphere of the sun, the Corona are seen during a total solar eclipse. A coronagraph like the VELC is an instrument that cuts out the light from the disk of the sun and can, thus, image the much fainter Corona at all times.