India Launches Its First Solar Research Mission Aditya-L1

The PSLV C57 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket carrying the station was launched from the national spaceport on the island of Sriharikota in the Bay of Bengal.

India has successfully launched the automated solar research station Aditya-L1. This is the first large-scale solar research expedition organized by India. The launch was broadcast live by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on its website.

"The launch of Aditya-L1 by PSLV-C57 is accomplished successfully. The vehicle has placed the satellite precisely into its intended orbit. India’s first solar observatory has begun its journey to the destination of Sun-Earth L1 point," ISRO said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Aditya-L1 solar mission will study chromospheric and coronal heating, physics of the partially ionized plasma, initiation of the coronal mass ejections and flares, as well as upper atmospheric dynamics.

It is planned to place the spacecraft in a halo orbit in the region of the Lagrange point (point L1) of the Sun-Earth system at a distance of about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. It will take the spacecraft 125 days to reach it.

The PSLV rocket last flew in XL configuration in November 2022, carrying the EOS-06 satellite and eight nanosatellites into Earth orbit.