CHENNAI: Aditya-L1, the spacecraft for India’s maiden solar mission, would reach its final destination -- the L1 point -- on January 6 when a final manoeuvre would be performed, said Isro chairman S Somanath on Monday.
Somanath said they would complete the L1 insertion on January 6 when a final firing is scheduled to align the spacecraft with the L1 point.
“That will be achieved around 4pm on January 6. If we do not do the final burn, the spacecraft will jump and go on its way farther distances, towards the Sun because it has a bigger body,” he said at a press meet following
the successful launch of PSLV-C58 carrying XPoSat. “This is the final manoeuvre. Once it is done, it will get trapped in orbit, but it is not permanent. We still have to do some firing occasionally to keep it there,” he added.
Once it reaches its final destination, the spacecraft will be able to view the Sun without interruptions from any eclipses.
The main objective of Aditya-L1 is to study solar activities, including coronal mass ejections and solar flares --explosions of magnetic energy capable of causing temporary blackouts to satellite signals and degrade high frequency radio waves.
Somanath said they had earlier performed a similar operation involving a very controlled burn of the engine of Aditya L1 for it to enter the halo orbit. All payloads had been tested and were working well, he added.
Aditya-L1, launched on September 2, 2023, had earlier undergone four earth-bound manoeuvres and a trans-lagrangian point 1 insertion manoeuvres.