<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aditya-L1, India’s first space-based solar observatory to study the Sun, will be launched today (September 2), at 11:50 am IST, atop a PSLV-XL (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) aims to place Aditya-L1 in a halo orbit around a special point in space, known as Lagrange point 1 (L1). It will take Aditya-L1 about 125 days to reach its destination, ISRO Chief S Somanath has said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">L1 is located 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, which is about one per cent of the distance between the Sun and the Earth.</span></p> <h3><span style="color: #ff5e00;"><strong>Aditya-L1: Where will it be placed? And why?</strong></span></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around a Lagrange point because it is a special location in space where the gravitational forces exerted by the Sun and the Earth are balanced, as a result of which an equilibrium condition exists, and the spacecraft is able to save fuel. The speciality of L1 is that it will allow Aditya-L1 to have an uninterrupted view of the Sun for five years, which is the spacecraft’s mission duration.</span></p> <h3><span style="color: #ff5e00;"><strong>Aditya-L1: What will the spacecraft’s trajectory be?</strong></span></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After being launched, Aditya-L1 will move towards low-Earth orbit, and be placed into a circular orbit. Next, the spacecraft will undergo an orbit-raising manoeuvre to ensure that its orbit becomes elliptical. Aditya-L1 will undergo three such orbit-raising manoeuvres to ensure that after each perigee burn, the orbit becomes more elliptical. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After this, Aditya-L1 will exit Earth’s sphere of influence and enter the cruise phase. This is a crucial phase because it will place Aditya-L1 on the path leading to halo orbit insertion. Once Aditya-L1 reaches the halo orbit, it will keep hovering around L1 with minimal fuel expenditure.</span></p> <h3><span style="color: #ff5e00;"><strong>Aditya-L1: What its payloads are, and what it will do</strong></span></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The spacecraft is equipped with seven payloads, four of which are spectrometers, two are particle analysers, and one is a magnetometer.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The spectrometers are called the remote sensing payloads, and the particle analysers and the magnetometer are called the in-situ payloads.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aditya-L1 will study solar activities, and also conduct in-situ experiments on the environment around L1.</span></p> <h3><span style="color: #ff5e00;"><strong>Aditya-L1: When and how to watch</strong></span></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One can witness the launch of Aditya-L1 live on the official website, YouTube channel, or Facebook account of ISRO, or on DD National. The livestream will start at 11:20 am IST.</span></p> <p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_IcgGYZTXQw?si=y-VIvc-zF5SRWk5O" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
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