Aditya-L1 entered the “halo” orbit around the Earth-Sun system’s L1 point, from whence it will observe the Sun for the ensuing five years.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) once again proved its capacity to carry out challenging and cutting-edge space missions on Saturday afternoon when it successfully placed its Aditya-L1 spacecraft—India’s first mission to study the Sun—into its destination orbit, just over four months after the Moon landing.
Aditya-L1 entered the “halo” orbit around the Earth-Sun system’s L1 point, from whence it will observe the Sun for the ensuing five years.One of the five places in the Earth-Sun system known as L1, or Lagrange 1 point, is where the centripetal force acting on any satellite positioned there and the gravitational pull of the Sun and Earth essentially balance each other out. It is a rather steady location to station a spacecraft and monitor the Sun. About 1.5 million kilometres separate the L1 point from Earth. This represents a mere 1% of the entire distance that separates Earth and Sun.
The sole goal of the event on Saturday, according to ISRO Chairman S Somanath, was to precisely place the Aditya-L1 in the “halo” orbit. It was approaching the “halo” orbit, but we needed to make a few adjustments to get it in the proper location. Thus, in order to maintain the satellite’s proper orientation, a cumulative velocity of about 31 metres per second had to be applied, according to what he told reporters, as reported by PTI.
