Liputan6.com, New Delhi – India on Saturday (6/1/2024) successfully completed its first observation mission to the Sun.
Aditya-L1 has succeeded in reaching its target position to be able to continue observing the Sun. The spacecraft has been traveling towards the Sun for four months since liftoff on September 2, 2023.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched it just days after India made history by becoming the first country to land near the south pole of the Moon.
Reported BBCSunday (7/1/2023), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was “a historical milestone” and “an extraordinary achievement”.
Via his official X account, Modi said: “This is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists in making the most complex space missions possible.”
India’s first space mission to study the largest object in the solar system was named after Surya, the Hindu god of the Sun, also known as Aditya. Meanwhile L1 stands for Lagrange point 1 – the exact place between the Sun and Earth that the spacecraft has now reached.
According to the European Space Agency, a Lagrange point is the point at which the gravitational forces of two large bodies – such as the Sun and the Earth – cancel each other out, allowing a spacecraft to “hover”.
L1 is located 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) from Earth, which is 1 percent of the Earth-Sun distance.
The final maneuver was carried out on Saturday at around 16:00 Indian time (10:30 GMT) to place Aditya in orbit L1, Times of India report.
2024-01-07 11:00:00
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