The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday announced that India’s inaugural solar mission has completed its halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point on July 2. This significant breakthrough was achieved after a station keeper manoeuvre made its transition into the second halo orbit.
What is Aditya-L1 mission
The Aditya-L1 mission is an Indian solar observatory installed at the Lagrangian point L1 and was launched last year in September. ISRO observed that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft completed circling the L1 point in the halo orbit in 178 days. The spacecraft was positioned into the intended halo orbit by ISRO on January 6, 2024.
ISRO mentioned, ”With today’s expedition, the state-of-the-art flight dynamics software which is manufactured in-house at USSC-ISRO for the Aditya-L1 missions has been fully verified.” The space organization underscored the complexity of the scientific study involved in the Aditya-L1’s expedition around the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point. To determine the accurate spacecraft trajectory and plan orbit movement, understanding various forces that were acting on it was important.
As per ISRO, till now the spacecraft has experienced various encounters of forces that can divert it from its planned path. The spacecraft conducted two station-keeping manoeuvre on February 22 and June 7 to maintain its orbit. This recent movement of the spacecraft on Tuesday made sure that it has continued along the second halo orbit path around L1.
(With PTI inputs)