ISRO says Aditya-L1’s first earth-bound manoeuvre performed successfully

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday said Aditya-L1, the country’s first solar mission, is healthy and operating nominally.

“The first Earth-bound maneuvre (EBN#1) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. The new orbit attained is 245km x 22459 km. The next maneuvre (EBN#2) is scheduled for September 5, 2023, around 03:00 Hrs. IST”, ISRO posted on X, formerly Twitter.

India’s first solar mission Aditya-L1 was launched successfully from Sriharikota on Saturday. The ISRO said Aditya-L1 is the first space-based observatory to study the sun. After travelling about 15 lakh kilometres from the Earth over 125 days, the spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point L1, considered closest to the sun.

What is a Lagrange Point?

Named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, there are five Lagrange points between the earth and the sun where a small object stays if put there.

At this point, the gravitational pull of the earth and the sun equals the centripetal force needed for a small object to move with them.

The spacecraft would be launched towards the Lagrange L1 point using on-board propulsion so that it exits the earth’s gravitational Sphere of Influence and cruises towards the L1. Later, it would be injected into a large Halo Orbit around L1 point near the Sun.

The total time from launch to reaching the L1 point would be about four months for the Aditya-L1 Mission, ISRO said.

Explaining the reasons to study the Sun, ISRO said it emits radiation in nearly all wavelengths along with various energetic particles and magnetic fields.

The atmosphere of the Earth as well as its magnetic field acts as a protective shield and blocks harmful wavelength radiations. In order to detect such radiation, solar studies are carried out from space.

The major objectives of the mission include understanding the Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration, the initiation of Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), near-earth space weather and the solar wind distribution.