The Countdown for India's first space-based solar observatory mission, Aditya L1 to study the Sun has commenced at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief S Somanath on Thursday said that the countdown for the Aditya-L1 launch will start on September 1 as the Aditya-L1 Solar Mission is all set for a launch on September 2 at 11:50 AM from the Sriharikota spaceport.
Aditya-L1 spacecraft will be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C57 rocket in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system. It is about 1.5 million km from the Earth. The Aditya-L1 spacecraft will provide the remote observations of the solar corona. This is the 25th mission for the PSLV-XL configuration and the 59th flight of the PSLV overall. ISRO has already completed the launch rehearsal and internal checks of PSLV-C57 rocket.
Taking to 'X' (formerly Twitter), ISRO tweeted, "The 23-hour 40-minute countdown leading to the launch at 11:50 Hrs. IST on September 2, 2023, has commended today at 12:10 Hrs."
Aditya-L1 spacecraft will carry seven payloads which will provide crucial information regarding the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their features, dynamics of space weather, particle and field propagation, etc.
Meanwhile, the ISRO chief worshiped at Tirupati Balaji temple today ahead of the launch of Aditya-L1 mission Talking to the media, Somnath gave information about the upcoming mission of ISRO and also expressed satisfaction with the scientific experiments of Mission Chandrayaan 3.
Earlier on August 23, ISRO created history by making India the first country to land near the lunar south pole of the moon and the fourth country to successfully land on it. As the mission continues, ISRO has said that its rover has confirmed the presence of sulphur, iron, oxygen and other elements on the Moon.
