BY -srushti sharma
The fourth Earth-bound manoeuvre of Aditya-L1, India's first solar space observatory mission, was carried out by scientists from the Istrac early on Friday.
Aditya-L1 has taken pictures of the Earth and the Moon on its voyage to the Sun-Earth L1 point.
Aditya-L1 would spend 16 days in Earth-bound orbits after launch, during which time it would do five manoeuvres to increase its velocity.
It would next perform a Trans-Lagrangian1 Insertion (TLI) operation, which would launch the start of its 110-day trajectory to the location around the L1 Lagrange point.
The next manoeuvre, TLI — a send-off from the Earth — is scheduled for September 19, 2023, around 2am
Aditya-L1 will be sent into an orbit around L1 after arriving at L1 by another manoeuvre. The L1 is Lagrange Point-1 of the Sun-Earth system
Lagrange Point-1 is located around 1.5 million kilometres from Earth
It's a place in space where the gravitational pulls of two celestial bodies, like the Sun and Earth, are balanced.
Throughout the duration of its mission, Aditya-L1 will orbit L1 in an erratic orbit in a plane that is nearly perpendicular to the line between the Earth and the Sun.