Vikram and Pragyan, Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover, continue science on the moon, ISRO has set the launch date for its solar mission – September 2 at 11.50 am.
The agency completed the integration of the Aditya-L1 spacecraft – India’s first solar observation mission – with its workhorse launch vehicle, PSLV, at Sriharikota.
Vikram Sarabhai Space Center Director S Unnikrishnan Nair told TOI that with this, ISRO has entered the final stages of launch preparations. “Launch vehicles and spacecraft are integrated. Now, we are conducting tests after which the PSLV will be moved to the launchpad.”
The spacecraft, realized at the UR Rao Satellite Center (URSC), Bengaluru, arrived at the spaceport in Sriharikota on August 14. Aditya-L1 is the first space-based observatory-class Indian solar mission to study the Sun.
The mission to study the Sun will be India’s fifth largest mission after the Mangalyaan programme and the three lunar missions. ISRO has completed the integration of the Aditya-L1 craft with the workhorse launcher, PSLV (C57).
The spacecraft will travel to the Lagrangian Point-1 between the Sun and Earth, 1.5 million km from our planet. A satellite placed in a halo orbit around the L1 point has the advantage of seeing the Sun continuously without any occultation or eclipse, which is not possible from Earth.
