127-day journey paves way for crucial data on space weather

The Aditya-L1 spacecraft on Saturday completed a 127-day journey to reach its final parking spot, readying itself for five years of crucial observations about various aspects of the Sun.

- Soumya Pillai

After the successful insertion of Aditya-L1 into a Halo Orbit around Lagrange Point 1, a region about 1.5 million km from the Earth, Isro chief S Somanath said that the satellite will have a mission life of at least five years and findings collated in this period will be significant not just for Indian scientific community but for the world.

“Understanding the Sun is not important for India alone, everyone around the world is looking forward to the findings,” Somanath said in his address to media after the space agency’s scientists performed the final set of manoeuvres to place the craft in a halo orbit around L1.

From L1, the spacecraft will be able to see how particles and radiation from heightened solar activity has an effect, while also studying the outer surface of the star in close detail — something that is normally not possible from the Earth, or even its orbit.

Giving details about the 1.5 million km journey of the craft, Annapurni Subramaniam, director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics, said it was completed in three phases — the earth-bound orbit, the cruise phase and finally the insertion of the craft into the halo orbit. Now the orbit phase of the mission will start where the experiments will be turned on.