Aditya- L1: ISRO’s maiden solar mission receives religious blessings, havan in Varanasi ahead of launch
Aditya L1 solar mission: Ahead of the imminent launch of India’s Aditya L1 solar mission, ‘havan’ was performed in Varanasi minutes before the launch to invoke success for the country’s maiden solar venture.
The launch will be broadcasted live at the BM Birla Planetarium in the city, according to an official statement.
Space enthusiast Bama, who travelled from Chennai to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre to witness the historic launch, expressed her overwhelming excitement. In an interview with ANI she said, “We are very proud to be Indians and are delighted to be here to watch the launch of our maiden solar mission. This is the first time I am here. I don’t have words to express my happiness.”
Scheduled for Saturday, the PSLV-C57.1 rocket will carry the Aditya-L1 orbiter from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, at 11:50 am. The mission comprises seven different payloads designed for an in-depth study of the Sun. Four of these payloads will observe the Sun’s light, while the remaining three will measure in-situ parameters of plasma and magnetic fields.
Aditya-L1 is destined for a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (L1), located 1.5 million km away from Earth in the direction of the Sun. The journey to this point is expected to take approximately four months.
The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), integrated, tested, and calibrated at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics’ CREST (Centre for Research and Education in Science Technology) campus in Hosakote in collaboration with ISRO, represents the largest and most technically challenging payload on Aditya-L1.
India’s solar mission aims to explore various aspects of the Sun, including the physics of the solar corona and its heating mechanism, solar wind dynamics, solar atmosphere behaviour, solar wind distribution and temperature anisotropy, and the origins of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and solar flares, as well as near-Earth space weather.
On August 23, India achieved a significant milestone as the Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the moon’s South Pole, marking India as the fourth country, after the US, China, and Russia, to achieve this feat.
(With inputs from ANI)
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Updated: 02 Sep 2023, 11:23 AM IST
