‘Countdown for launch of India’s maiden solar mission commences’

ISRO’s PSLV-C57 carrying ‘Aditya-L1’ spacecraft at the launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota on Friday. Pic/PTI

The countdown for the launch of India's maiden solar mission, Aditya L1 onboard the PSLV, commenced here on Friday, ISRO said. The Sun observatory mission is all set to be launched from this spaceport at 11.50 am on Saturday, and comes close on the heels of India's successful moon expedition, Chandrayaan-3.

"PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1 Mission: The countdown leading to the launch at 11:50 Hrs. IST on September 2, 2023," has started, ISRO said in an update on X, formerly Twitter. The 23-hour 40-minute countdown commenced at 12:10 pm, it added. ISRO Chairman S Somnath had earlier said the mission will take 125 days to reach the exact radius.

Aditya-L1 is designed for providing remote observations of the solar corona and in situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point), which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the earth. It will be the first dedicated Indian space mission for observations of the Sun to be launched by the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency.

The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), the primary payload of Aditya L1 will be sending 1,440 images per day to the ground station for analysis on reaching the intended orbit. The main science drivers of Aditya-L1 are to understand the origin, dynamics, and propagation of Coronal Mass Ejections and to help solve the Coronal Heating Problem.

The study

The main science drivers of Aditya-L1 are to understand the origin, dynamics, and propagation of Coronal Mass Ejections and to help solve the Coronal Heating Problem.

1,440
No of images per day the primary payload VELC will send

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