<p>Bengaluru, Sep 10 (PTI): Aditya L1 spacecraft, India's first space-based mission to study the Sun, successfully underwent its third earth-bound manoeuvre in the early hours of Sunday, ISRO said.</p><p>The space agency's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) carried out the operation.</p><p>"The third Earth-bound manoeuvre (EBN#3) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. ISRO's ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation," the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO) said in a post on social media platform X.</p><p>The new orbit attained is 296 km x 71767 km, it said, adding the next manoeuvre is scheduled on September 15, around 2 am.</p><p>Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space-based observatory that will study the Sun from a halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from the Earth.</p><p>The first and second earth-bound manoeuvres were successfully performed on September 3 and 5, respectively. The spacecraft will undergo one more earth-bound orbital manoeuvres before it is placed in the transfer orbit towards the Lagrange point L1.</p><p>The manoeuvres are required to be performed during the spacecraft's 16-day journey around the earth, during which it will gain the velocity necessary for its onward journey to L1.</p><p>ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) had on September 2 successfully launched Aditya-L1 from the Second Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.</p><p>The spacecraft is expected to arrive at the intended orbit at the L1 point after about 127 days, the space agency had said soon after the launch.</p><p>According to ISRO, a spacecraft placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation or eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing solar activities and their effect on space weather in real-time.</p><p>Aditya-L1 carries seven scientific payloads developed indigenously by the ISRO and national research laboratories, including the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune.</p><p>The payloads will observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun -- the corona -- using electromagnetic, particle and magnetic field detectors.</p><p>Using the special vantage point L1, four payloads will directly view the Sun and the remaining three will carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields at the Lagrange point L1, providing important data on the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium.</p><p>The suits of Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide the most crucial information to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, and propagation of particles and fields.</p><p>According to scientists, there are five Lagrangian points, or parking areas, between the Earth and the Sun where a small object tends to stay put.</p><p>The Lagrange Points are named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange. These points in space can be used by spacecraft to remain there with reduced fuel consumption.</p><p>At a Lagrange point, the gravitational pull of the two large bodies (the Sun and the Earth) equals the necessary centripetal force required for a small object to move with them. PTI KSU NSD NSD</p><p><i>(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)</i></p>
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