India’s first solar mission, Aditya L-1, exited Eath’s orbit on September 19 and commenced its 110-day journey towards the Sun-Earth L1 point, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced on X.
“The Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuvre is performed successfully. The spacecraft is now on a trajectory that will take it to the Sun-Earth L-1 point. It will be injected into an orbit around L-1 through a maneuver after about 110 days,” ISRO’s update read.
The solar spacecraft underwent four earth-bound orbital maneuvers before being placed in the transfer orbit towards the Lagrange point L-1, which is located roughly 1.5 million km from earth.
A day before the achievement, the space agency said that the spacecraft has begun collecting scientific data through the Supra Thermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS) instrument, a part of the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) payload.
According to reports, Aditya L-1 is equipped with four instruments for solar observation and three for measuring the effects of solar activity on the spacecraft's surroundings. The instruments are meant to help generate space weather alerts that are triggered by the sun's activity and shed light on the sun's behavior.
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