Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) launched the Aditya-L1 spacecraft successfully on Sunday, which departed from the Second Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota.
The space organization said the Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space based observatory, launched on a venture to study the Sun from a halo orbit around first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1). This is said to be located roughly 1.5 million kilometres from earth.
ISRO in a tweet on X, previously known as Twitter said on Tuesday, “Aditya-L1 Mission: The second Earth-bound manoeuvre (EBN#2) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru.” The tweet continued, “ISTRAC/ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation. The new orbit attained is 282 km x 40225 km.”
The Indian space agency stated Aditya-L1 spacecraft will undergo four earth-bound orbital manoeuvers before placing in the transfer orbit towards the Lagrange point L1. In simple terms, an orbital manoeuver, also known as a burn, is the use of propulsion systems to change the orbit of a spacecraft.
Aditya-L1 is expected to arrive the intended orbit at the L1 point after about 127 days. This spacecraft carries seven scientific payloads indigenously developed by ISRO and national research laboratories including Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru and Inter University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune.
In late August, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 landed on the south pole of the moon, making India record a historical moment of being the fourth country to accomplish the mission.
