Finance
The Indian space agency successfully inserted the Aditya-L1 solar observatory at the Trans-Lagrangian Point 1 in the early hours of Tuesday.
According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the country’s space-based solar observatory, Aditya-L1, was inserted at the Trans-Lagrangian Point 1 on Tuesday at 2 a.m.
“The spacecraft is now on a trajectory that will take it to the Sun-Earth L1 point. It will be injected into an orbit around L1 through a manoeuvre after about 110 days,” ISRO said.
ISRO has successfully transferred an object on a trajectory toward another celestial body or location in space for the fifth time in a row.
ISRO has sent its spacecraft three times to the moon and once to Mars. And this is the fifth Tuesday transfer to the Sun.
On September 2, an Indian rocket called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle -XL (PSLV-XL) variant launched Aditya-L1 into low earth orbit (LEO).
ISRO has increased the spacecraft’s orbit four times since then.
The spacecraft will leave the Earth’s gravitational Sphere of Influence (SOI) as it travels towards Lagrange Point (L1).
Following the spacecraft’s exit from SOI, the cruise phase will begin, and the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo orbit around the L1 — the point where the gravitational pull of two large bodies — the Sun and Earth — will be equal, and thus the spacecraft will not gravitate towards either planet.
Aditya-L1’s overall travel time from launch to L1 will be around four months, with a distance covered of approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
