Aditya-L1 to Take the Path Towards Sun on September 19

New Delhi: Aditya-L1, India’s space observatory to study the sun will finally zoom towards the Sun leaving the earth’s orbit on September 19.

Then the spacecraft will be maneuvered to Trans-Lagrangian Point 1 Insertion (TL1I), the ISRO said on Friday. As the spacecraft travels towards Lagrange Point (L1), it will exit the earth’s gravitational Sphere of Influence (SOI).

Aditya-L1’s fourth Earth-bound maneuver was performed successfully at 2.15 am on Friday. According to ISRO, the new orbit attained is 256 km x 121973 km.

“ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR and Port Blair tracked the Aditya-L1 during this operation, while a transportable terminal currently stationed in the Fiji islands for Aditya-L1 will support post-burn operations,” the space agency said.

After exit from SOI, the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo orbit around the L1, the point where the gravitational pull of Sun and Earth will be equal. So, the spacecraft will not gravitate toward any one of them.

It will take about four months for Aditya-L1 to reach the L1 point around 1.5 million km from the Earth.