India launched the Aditya-L1 solar research station, the launch was broadcast on the website and YouTube channel of the Indian Space Research Organization.
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To launch the mission, the Indian Space Agency used an XL configuration PSLV polar satellite launcher, equipped with six outboard engines. The XL configuration was first used to launch India’s first lunar probe Chandrayaan 1 in October 2008. Since then, it has been used for several important missions, including the Mangalyaan Martian Orbiter mission launched in November 2013.
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The PSLV last flew in XL configuration in November 2022, carrying the EOS-06 satellite and eight nanosatellites into Earth orbit.
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The Aditya-L1 station is India’s first observatory-type space mission to observe the Sun. After a four-month journey of 1.5 million kilometers, the device will enter a halo orbit at the Lagrange point L1, where the forces of the gravitational attraction of the Earth and the Sun are equal. This arrangement will allow Aditya-L1 to constantly observe the Sun, without being distracted by eclipses.
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The spacecraft carries seven instruments to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic field, particle and magnetic field detectors. It is planned that when the expected orbit is reached, the mission’s main apparatus, the visible line coronograph, will send 1,440 images per day to the ground station for analysis.
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The Aditya L1 mission is expected to provide information for understanding the problem of solar corona heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare activity and its characteristics, space weather dynamics, solar wind propagation, particles and fields, and others.
