The Aditya-L1 spacecraft, India’s maiden space mission dedicated to solar research, has embarked on its trajectory to the Sun-Earth L1 point after performing the Trans-Lagrangian Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuver. This marks the spacecraft’s transition from orbiting Earth since its September 2 launch to its mission towards the L1 Lagrange point, a gravitational equilibrium between the Earth and the Sun.
ISRO successfully executed the TL1I maneuver, initiating Aditya-L1’s approximately 110-day journey to its destination. Aditya-L1, situated at the L1 point, around 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, is designed to study the Sun’s outer atmosphere. It is India’s first space-based observatory for solar research.
This mission signifies the fifth time ISRO has effectively transferred an object towards a celestial body or location in space. Aditya-L1 will not land on or approach the Sun closely; instead, it will conduct observations from its orbit around L1.
During its journey around Earth, Aditya-L1 completed four Earth-bound maneuvers on September 3, 5, 10, and 15, gaining the necessary velocity for its trip to L1. After reaching the L1 point, another maneuver will establish Aditya-L1 in an orbit around L1, where it will spend its mission life.
The spacecraft is anticipated to reach its intended L1 orbit after approximately 127 days from the launch, as confirmed by ISRO, which successfully launched Aditya-L1 aboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota.
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