Aditya L1 Mission ISRO Achieves Milestone with Fourth Earth-Bound Manoeuvre Success

Aditya L1 Mission Progress: ISRO’s Successful 4th Earth-Bound Manoeuvre

Aditya-L1, which is India’s first space mission to explore the Sun, has made its fourth Earth-bound manoeuvre. ISRO scheduled the next manoeuvre for send-off from Earth on September 19, 02:00 IST. It successfully completed its third maneuver on September 10. After successfully launching the maiden space observatory (Aditya-L1) to study the sun from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on September 2, it is performing smoothly to reach the L1 point. The distance to the L1 point from Earth is approximately 1.5 million kilometers. This is the first-ever solar observatory to study the sun in India.

• After completing 1.5 million km of its journey, it’ll be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point (L1). There are five maneuvers that will be taken in a total of 16 days around the Earth. In this period of time, it’ll build the required velocity for reaching the L1 point.

• Propulsion systems are used to change the orbit of the spacecraft. The final orbit maneuvers will be arrived at after detailed calculations and simulations to optimize the final mass and duration.

• There are powerful rockets that can push that velocity in other space centers, but in our case, maneuvers are needed, which are attained by burning the propellants using propulsion systems inside the satellite.

• Manoeuvres are known for keeping the spacecraft in the correct orbit and for gaining velocity. This is the best way to save propellant. The new orbit has attained 256 Km x 12973 Km.

• ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR, and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation, while a transportable terminal currently stationed in the Fiji Islands for Aditya-L1 will support post-burn operations. ISRO tweeted it on the X account.

M. S. Pannirselvam, former Range Operation Director and also the former Chief General Manager at the Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota, mentioned that Aditya L1 has to pass the Moon’s orbit during its journey towards the L1 point. He said that if the moon is nearby by any chance, it will affect the path of the Aditya-L1, and it’s needed to ensure that the moon is behind the Earth while it crosses the moon’s orbit.

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