By- Srishti Verma
Aditya-L1 spacecraft, which is carrying out India's first space-based solar mission, is expected to arrive at Lagrange Point 1 (L1) by mid-January, according to ISRO chief S Somanath
Somnath explained, “It is working very well. Currently, it takes almost 110 days to travel from Earth to the L1 point. So by the middle of January, it will reach the L1 point. Then at that point, we will do the insertion into the Lagrange Point. That is called the halo orbit. It's a big orbit. So that will happen by the middle of January.”
On September 2, days after Chandrayaan-3's soft landing on the Moon's south pole, Aditya-L1 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota
In order to conduct a thorough study of the sun, it carried seven separate payloads, four of which will measure in-situ plasma and magnetic field parameters, and the other three will measure solar light.
Studying the solar corona, the Sun's outermost layer, and looking at various elements of the Sun-Earth relationship are the main goals of the Aditya-L1 project
The initial Lagrange point (L1), a stable location in space halfway between the Earth and the Sun, is where the mission will be launched into its halo orbit
The "Gaganyaan" mission was another subject the ISRO Chief discussed.
“Test Vehicle-D1 mission is scheduled for October 21. This is the Gaganyaan program. The Gaganyaan program requires testing, demonstrating the crew escape system. The crew escape system is a very critical system in Gaganyaan….” declared ISRO Chief.
"Every month we will have at least one launch. After this test vehicle launch, we have GSLV. Then we have SSLV. Then after that, the Gaganyaan unmanned mission will be there. In between there will be a PSLV launch. So before January, you will see at least 4-5 launches", he added.