ISRO carries out trajectory correction manoeuvre on Aditya-L1

ISRO on Sunday said it has performed a trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM) on Aditya L1 spacecraft, the country's maiden solar mission. The Indian space agency also said the spacecraft was healthy.

"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," ISRO said on 'X'. It was needed to correct the trajectory evaluated after tracking the Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuvre performed on September 19, 2023, it added. Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space based observatory to study the Sun from a halo orbit around first sun-earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from earth.

According to ISRO, TCM ensures that the spacecraft is on its intended path towards the Halo orbit insertion around L1. "As Aditya-L1 continues to move ahead, the magnetometer will be turned on again within a few days," the agency said. Aditya L1 was successfully launched on September 2 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota.

The spacecraft, after traveling about 1.5 million km from the Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1 which is considered closest to the Sun. Among others, it will send pictures of the sun for scientific experiments