Aditya L1 spacecraft successfully completes fourth earth-bound orbit manoeuvre

India’s first space-based mission to study the Sun, Aditya L1 spacecraft successfully underwent the fourth earth-bound manoeuvre early morning today.

ISRO’s has posted on X handle that the ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation. The new orbit attained is 256 km x 121973 kms. “The next manoeuvre Trans-Lagragean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) — a send-off from the Earth — is scheduled for September 19, around 02:00 Hrs. IST.” With the completion of four earth-bound orbital manoeuvres, Aditya-L1 will next undergo a Trans-Lagrangian1 ion manoeuvre, marking the beginning of its nearly 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point.

Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space-based observatory to study the Sun from a halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from the Earth. A spacecraft placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation or eclipses.

This will provide a greater advantage in observing solar activities and their effect on space weather in real-time.