Solar mission Aditya L1 will reach destination on January 6: ISRO chairman

AHMEDABAD: India's maiden solar mission 'Aditya L1' will reach its destination, the Lagrangian point (L1) which is located 1.5 million km from Earth, on January 6, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath said here on Friday.

The mission, the first Indian space-based observatory to study the Sun from a halo orbit L1, was launched by ISRO on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota. "Aditya L1 will enter the L1 point on January 6. That is what is expected. Exact time will be announced at appropriate time," Somanath told mediapersons on the sidelines of the Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan organised by Vijnana Bharati, an NGO working to popularise science.

"When it reaches the L1 point, we have to fire the engine once again so that it does not go further. It will go to that point, and once it reaches that point, it will rotate around it and will be trapped at L1," he said. Once Aditya L1 reaches its destination, it will help measure various events happening on the Sun for the next five years. "Once it is successfully placed on L1 point, it will be there for the next five years, gathering all the data which are very important not for India alone but for the entire world.

The data will be very useful to understand the dynamics of the Sun and how it affects our life," the ISRO chief said. How India is going to become a technologically powerful country is very important, he said while addressing the gathering. ISRO has made a plan to build an Indian space station, called 'Bharatiya space station' during the 'Amrit Kaal' as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi's instructions, Somanath said.

"In the space sector we are seeing an emergence of new actors...We are going to support, encourage and build the economy around the new generation," he said, adding that India cannot become a leader in everything, but it should focus on the sectors where it can.
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