Aditya-L1 satellite will be injected into orbit around L1 point on Jan 6: ISRO-SAC director

Aditya-L1, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on September 2, will go up to the First Lagrangian point, about 1.5 million km from the Earth.

Hyderabad: ISRO's Space Applications Centre director Nilesh Desai said the Aditya L1 solar mission satellite will be injected into orbit around the Sun at L1 point on January 6 in a critical operation.

''Once it is inserted successfully into the halo orbit the Sun, Earth and the satellite will be moving together so that we have the continuous coverage and observation of Sun from the vantage L1 point where it will not be affected by even eclipse and other effects, '' Desai said. After India’s solar mission Aditya L1 began its journey towards Lagrange point 1 following a key manoeuvre, it has started studying energetic particles in the solar wind from space, and will continue to do so for the rest of its life, a senior astrophysicist said.

The study of the solar wind, the continuous flow of charged particles from the Sun which permeates the solar system, will be carried out with the help of a device named Supra Thermal & Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS), a part of the Aditya Solar wind Particle EXperiment (ASPEX) payload.

Aditya-L1, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on September 2, will go up to the First Lagrangian point, about 1.5 million km from the Earth.

ISRO on September 18 said on X: "Off to Sun-Earth L1 point! The Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) manoeuvre is performed successfully. The spacecraft is now on a trajectory that will take it to the Sun-Earth L1 point." Lagrangian points are where gravitational forces, acting between two objects, balance each other in such a way that the spacecraft can ‘hover’ for a longer period of time.

The L1 point is considered the most significant of the Lagrangian points, for solar observations, which were discovered by mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange. (PTI)