Aditya-L1 Gets Ready To Study The Sun

Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun, is ready for launch.

Aditya -- the name in Sanskrit refers to the Sun -- is a coronagraphy spacecraft manufactured at the U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru to study the solar atmosphere.

It is planned to be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1 point between the Earth and the Sun to study the solar atmosphere, solar magnetic storms and its impact on the environment around Earth.

The spacecraft will carry a 1,500 kg payload consisting of 7 instruments: The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph; the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope; the Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment; the Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya; the Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer; the High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer; the Magnetometer.

Aditya-L1 is scheduled to be launched aboard a PSLV-XL launch vehicle around August 26, 2023, three days after Chandrayaan-3's proposed arrival on the Moon's South Pole.

Aditya-L1 will take around 109 Earth days after launch to reach the halo orbit, about 1,500,000 km from Earth.

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com