New Delhi: India’s first solar mission, Aditya L-1, is in good health and on its way to the Sun-Earth L1 point, according to the Indian space agency ISRO. The spacecraft’s onboard instrument, the magnetometer, will be activated again in a few days as the mission progresses along its intended path.
ISRO has reported that the Aditya L-1 spacecraft had to undergo a Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) on October 6, 2023, lasting approximately 16 seconds. This maneuver was necessary to correct the trajectory, which was evaluated after the Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1) maneuver performed on September 19, 2023.
Aditya L-1 was launched on September 2, 2023, at 11:50 IST from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The mission was conducted using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57 rocket).
Aditya-L1 Mission:
The Spacecraft is healthy and on its way to Sun-Earth L1.A Trajectory Correction Maneuvre (TCM), originally provisioned, was performed on October 6, 2023, for about 16 s. It was needed to correct the trajectory evaluated after tracking the Trans-Lagrangean…
— ISRO (@isro) October 8, 2023
The Aditya L-1 mission is expected to be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrange Point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is approximately 1.5 million km from Earth. This location offers the advantage of continuous observation of the Sun without any occultation or eclipses.
The mission’s primary objectives include studying various phenomena of the Sun, such as coronal heating, the Solar Upper Atmospheric, magnetic field topology, and more.