Just 10 days after Chandrayaan-3’s spectacular landing on the south pole of the moon, India has successfully launched its first space-based solar observatory mission.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft, which weighs over 3,264 pounds, launched on Saturday at 11:50 a.m. local time from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, South India, using the 44.4-meter-tall Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL). It will travel 932,000 miles and take 125 days (or more than four months) to get there: a halo orbit around one of five Lagrangian points, which are located between the sun and the Earth and allow spacecraft to continuously follow solar activity without any occultation or eclipse.
Seven payloads, including four for remote sensing and three for on-site research, have been mounted on the Aditya-L1 spacecraft by India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). A solar ultraviolet imaging telescope, an X-ray spectrometer, a solar wind particle analyzer, a plasma analyzer package, a visible emission line coronagraph, and tri-axial high-resolution digital magnetometers are among the instruments on board that can gather the required information and observations. The mission’s main objective is to continuously monitor solar activity and its impact on space weather. Its codename is PSLV-C57.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft was launched by the PSLV into an elliptical orbit of 14612,117 miles after more than an hour had passed since takeoff. For the first time, the upper stage of the launch vehicle needed to perform two fire sequences to place the spacecraft into the desired orbit.
“I would want to congratulate PSLV for undertaking this very unique mission approach today to launch Aditya-L1 into the proper orbit. Speaking to the audience at the mission control center of the space agency, ISRO chairman S. Somanath said that the Aditya-L1 will now begin its voyage following certain Earth maneuvers. Let’s send our best wishes to the Aditya spacecraft as it makes its lengthy voyage and gets placed in L1’s halo orbit.
The photosphere, chromosphere, and corona—the sun’s three most important regions—will all be studied by the spacecraft’s payloads. Additionally, at the Lagrangian point L1, the three apparatuses for conducting on-site experiments will monitor the regional environment.
Aditya-L1 was created in 2008 to investigate the solar corona, the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere, and was given the name Aditya (“sun” in Hindi). The Indian government funded over $46 million for it in 2019. The project was eventually expanded to research the solar and space conditions, and ISRO gave it the new designation Aditya-L1.
Nigar Shaji, the project director for the Aditya-L1 mission, said, “It’s a dream come true for the crew Aditya-L1. The Aditya mission will benefit national heliophysics as well as the entire scientific community once it is operational.
China, Europe, and the United States have all launched solar observatory missions into orbit in the past to study the sun. India is only now entering this field, having previously concentrated on sun observation with ground-based telescopes.
When Chandrayaan-3 performed a successful soft landing on the moon last week, the Indian space agency received accolades and attention from all across the world. In a video the mission’s lander uploaded earlier this week, the rover can be seen traveling across the lunar surface in search of a safe path. Several tests will be carried out as part of the lunar mission to eventually support a human landing.
Jitendra Singh, the deputy minister for science and technology, praised ISRO for the successful launch of the Aditya-L1 mission and added, “While the entire world watched this with bated breath, it is indeed a sunshine moment for India.”
In addition to Aditya-L1, ISRO has been working on the 2025 mission Gaganyaan, a human space flight mission. The space agency is also planning to send an unmanned spacecraft to Venus into orbit.
To take part in international cooperative space experiments, India signed the Artemis Accords with NASA in June. To deploy Indian astronauts to the International Space Station the following year, NASA has also committed to training them there at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston. In addition, ISRO and NASA are developing a low-Earth observatory mission that will be launched in 2024 and map the entire planet in 12 days while continuously monitoring the ecosystems, ice mass, biomass of the vegetation, sea level, and natural hazards and disasters on Earth.
To increase commercial engagement in its space missions, India published a space strategy earlier this year. There are currently more than 150 space technology startups in the South Asian country working on launch vehicles, satellites, and Earth observation technologies.
Indian space tech businesses received $112 million in funding in 2022, up from $96 million in 2021, a 17% increase. According to statistics recently released by analysis firm Tracxn, the space technology sector also experienced a strong 60% growth in capital infusion from last year, hitting $62 million in 2023. With the easing of regulations for foreign direct investments, which numerous stakeholders have long desired, investments in Indian startups are anticipated to increase.
