External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Saturday congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the successful launch of India’s first solar mission, Aditya -L1, calling it another feather in the space agency’s cap. “Congratulations on the successful launch of India’s first Solar Mission, Aditya -L1. This is yet another feather in @isro’s cap. Their achievements continue to inspire the nation and raise our global profile,” EAM Jaishankar posted on his official handle on ‘X’, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.The PSLV-C57.1 rocket carrying the Aditya-L1 orbiter lifted off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh at 11.50 am today.
ISRO on Saturday said the payloads on board the Aditya L1 spacecraft were successfully separated as it left Earth’s atmosphere following its successful launch from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
“The third stage of the separation of PSLV carrying the Aditya-L1 orbiter has been completed,” the ISRO posted on X. The launch of Aditya-L1 by PSLV-C57 has been accomplished successfully, it said.
The launch vehicle placed the satellite precisely into its intended orbit, it said, adding that the country’s first solar observatory has begun its journey to the destination of the L1 point, which lies between the Earth and the Sun.
The successful launch of ISRO’s maiden solar mission came on the heels of the historic lunar landing mission — Chandrayaan-3.
ISRO successfully placed a lander on the unexplored lunar South Pole, a feat that put India in the record books as the first country to do so.
The Aditya-L1 mission is expected to reach the observation point in four months. It will be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (or L1), which is 1.5 million km away from the Earth in the direction of the sun.
The launch vehicle lifted off with seven different payloads, which will conduct a detailed study of the sun. Four of these payloads will observe the light from the Sun while the other three will measure in-situ parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields.
The largest and technically most challenging payload on Aditya-L1 is the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph or VELC.VELC was 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.
This strategic location will enable Aditya-L1 to continuously observe the sun without being hindered by eclipses or occultation, allowing scientists to study solar activities and their impact on space weather in real time.
Also, the spacecraft’s data will help identify the sequence of processes that lead to solar eruptive events and contribute to a deeper understanding of space weather drivers.
Major objectives of India’s solar mission include the study of the physics of solar corona and its heating mechanism, the solar wind acceleration, coupling and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, solar wind distribution and temperature anisotropy, and origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and flares and near-earth space weather.
