The Sun expedition comes close on the heels of ISRO’s successful moon mission, Chandrayaan 3.
Sriharikota: ISRO maiden solar mission, Aditya L1, is all set to launch from the spaceport here on Saturday, the countdown for which had already begun, an AP report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says
Aditya-L1 is the first space-based observatory class to study the Sun and is being fired using ISRO’s reliable Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from here at 11.50 am.
The spacecraft, after traveling about 1.5 million km from the Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1 which is considered closest to the Sun.
The majin objectives of the mission are to understand Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration, the initiation of Coronal Mass Ejection, and near-earth space weather and the solar wind distribution, amomg other things.
The mission will carry seven distinct payloads, with four focused on observing sunlight and the remaining three designed to measure plasma and magnetic field parameters. The centerpiece of the payload is the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), a technically challenging instrument designed to capture the sun’s corona.
Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (L1), located 1.5 million km from Earth in the direction of the sun.
With Aditya-L1, India aims to join the elite group of nations capable of in-depth solar research, further establishing its credentials in the realm of space exploration.
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