GUWAHATI: In a significant milestone for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, designed for solar observation, has undergone a crucial manoeuvre to position itself into its final destination orbit.
Scheduled for Saturday, the manoeuvre aimed to place the spacecraft in a halo orbit around Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, approximately 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth.
Officials from ISRO stated to the media the importance of the L1 point, which provides a unique advantage for continuous observation of the Sun without any interruptions such as occultations or eclipses.
This positioning is expected to offer unprecedented insights into solar activities and their impact on space weather in real-time.
Failure to execute this manoeuvre could have resulted in the spacecraft continuing its trajectory, possibly towards the Sun.
The Aditya-L1 was launched aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on September 2 of the previous year.
After a successful launch, the spacecraft underwent a series of manoeuvres, eventually heading towards Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1(L1), escaping Earth's sphere of influence.
Equipped with seven payloads designed to observe the photosphere, chromosphere, and the outermost layers of the Sun, Aditya-L1 is set to provide essential scientific data on various solar phenomena.
The payloads include electromagnetic and particle detectors as well as magnetic field detectors. Four of the payloads directly observe the Sun, while the remaining three carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields at Lagrange point L1.
The primary scientific objectives of the Aditya-L1 mission encompass studying solar upper atmospheric dynamics, chromospheric and coronal heating, partially ionised plasma physics, coronal mass ejections, and flares. Additionally, the spacecraft will observe in-situ particle and plasma environments, contributing to the understanding of space weather dynamics.