ISRO Provides Health Update on Aditya L1 Spacecraft: “En Route to Sun-Earth L1 On September 2, ISRO successfully launched the Aditya-L1 spacecraft from the Sriharikota spaceport.
On Sunday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) provided an update stating that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, embarked on India’s inaugural mission to investigate the Sun, remains in good health and is progressing towards the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (L1), situated approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. ISRO also confirmed that the spacecraft executed a successful trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) lasting approximately 16 seconds on October 6.
“Correction of the evaluated trajectory following the Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuver conducted on September 19, 2023, was necessary. The ISRO conveyed via X (formerly known as Twitter) that the Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) guarantees the spacecraft’s alignment with its designated course for Halo orbit insertion around L1.”
ISRO reports that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft is progressing as planned, and the magnetometer will be reactivated in the coming days.
To date, the spacecraft has completed four successful Earth-bound maneuvers and executed a Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuver. Furthermore, the spacecraft has effectively navigated beyond Earth’s gravitational sphere of influence.
The Aditya-L1 mission, launched by ISRO on September 2 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, follows the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission. This spacecraft’s primary objective is to deliver remote observations of the solar corona and conduct in-situ measurements of the solar wind at L1, also known as the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point. The valuable data gathered during this mission will enable scientists to analyze the characteristics and behavior of particles in the vicinity of Earth.
Aditya-L1 will maintain a distance of roughly 1.5 million km from Earth, with its focus fixed on the Sun. This distance corresponds to about 1 percent of the Earth-Sun separation, as stated by ISRO.
ISRO Chairman S. Somanath has noted that the Sun mission is projected to take 125 days to reach its designated position but will neither land on nor venture closer to the Sun.
