Solar mission Aditya L-1 in position, set for launch

Space agency Isro on Wednesday released the first photographs of India’s lunar lander, the Vikram, on the moon in the clearest spectacle yet of the country’s historic achievement, less than an hour after it confirmed that its first mission to study the Sun was on track.

- Soumya Pillai

 

The Vikram and Pragyan, the rover that took the photo on Monday, have nine more days to explore and study the moon before the spot near the south pole loses sunlight, forcing the solar-powered equipment to stop missions.

“Pragyan rover clicked an image of Vikram lander this morning. The ‘image of the mission’ was taken by the Navigation Camera onboard the rover (NavCam). NavCams for the Chandrayaan-3 Mission are developed by the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS),” said the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in a tweet.

The photograph was taken at 11.04am on Wednesday, when the rover was around 15 metres from the lander, Isro said.

The moon mission executed to a tee, the agency is now preparing for the blast-off its workhorse rocket PSLV-C-57, which will lift the Aditya-L1 solar probe into space for what will also be a historic first for India: the ability to study the sun.