Aditya-L1

The Aditya-L1 mission is set to be launched on September 2 from Sriharikota, becoming the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun. It will be placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said. The distance to L1 will be covered in nearly four months. "A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses," it added. Aditya-L1 will be carrying seven payloads. Four of these will study the Sun's photosphere, chromosphere and the corona, while the remaining three will study particles and fields at the L1. It will collect data for five years.

The launch of Aditya-L1 comes close on the heels of the successful landing of ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 near the Moon's South Pole. The spacecraft will be travelling a distance nearly four times that travelled by the Chandrayaan missions, but just 1% of the 150 million km between the Earth and the Sun. The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is more than two times lighter than the one to the Moon.