Aditya-L1 set to reach solar perch on Jan 6

New Delhi: India's maiden solar mission, Aditya-L1, is gearing up for a critical mid-course correction manoeuvre as it nears its final destination: the Lagrangian point 1 (L1). This is a crucial step in placing the spacecraft in its designated orbit around L1, 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman, S Somnath, has disclosed that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft is set to reach its destination, the L1 point, on January 6, 2024. The spacecraft will cover a distance of 15 lakh kilometers through space to achieve this milestone.

“The L1 point insertion of Aditya-L1 will be done on January 6, 2024, but the exact time has not been finalized yet,” stated Somnath, providing a timeline for the critical stage of the mission. L1 is a key area in space where the Earth's and Sun's gravitational forces balance each other out, allowing a spacecraft to maintain a stable position relative to both bodies.

The Aditya-L1 mission, conceived in January 2008 by the Advisory Committee for Space Sciences (ADCOS), has a distinctive objective of studying the Sun's corona. Originally envisioned as a 400 kg satellite orbiting 800 km above Earth, it evolved into a comprehensive solar observation mission situated at the L1 point, 1.5 million km away from Earth.

Launched on September 2, 2023, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, atop the dependable PSLV-C57 rocket, Aditya-L1 embarked on its ambitious journey to gain deeper insights into the Sun's dynamics.

Having successfully overcome Earth's gravitational pull on September 30, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft executed a series of trajectory correction manoeuvres. These adjustments ensured its precise positioning in the halo orbit around the L1 point, marking a crucial phase of the mission.

Aditya-L1's mission objectives are profound, seeking to unravel the mysteries of the Sun's corona, understand its heating mechanisms, and study the dynamics of coronal mass ejections (CMEs).