Aditya L1 set for Sept 2 launch: 12 things about India's first mission to study the Sun

On 2 September 2023, the Aditya L1 will be launched by PSLV-C57 rocket from Sriharikota

With feet firmly planted on the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now aiming for the Sun. Aditya L1 Mission, India's first Sun study, takes off on September 2 at 11.50 am from Sriharikota.

Fifteen years in the making, this is the first time ISRO is sending out back-to-back space exploration missions.

Here are 12 things about the Aditya L1 mission to the Sun

1) Aditya L1 is India's first space-based solar probe that aims to study solar winds, which can cause disturbance on earth and are commonly seen as "auroras".

2) The craft, named after the Hindi word for Sun, will be launched from India's main spaceport in Sriharikota using the heavy-duty launch vehicle, PSLV, which will travel about 1.5 million km (932,000 miles)

3) Centre has sanctioned the equivalent of about $46 million for the mission in 2019. ISRO has not given an official update on costs.

4) The distance of 1.5 million kilometres to the sun is more than Chandrayaan-3's destination of about 4 lakh km from Earth. Only the Mangalyaan Orbiter went much deeper, about 200 million km.

5) Aditya L1 will aim for Lagrange 1 or L1 point between Earth and the Sun, which is roughly 1% of the 150 million km distance between the two

Aditya L1: Live coverage

6) Named after 18th century Italian-born astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange, the Lagrange point is a spot in space where gravity from the Sun and Earth balance the orbital motion of a satellite. Simply put it's a gravitational sweet spot where it won't take a lot of energy, fuel, to keep a spacecraft steady.

7) Aditya L1 has been in the works for over 15 years. ISRO was shaping this plan while preparing for the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008.

8) Aditya L1 will study the Sun's photosphere, chromosphere, and corona, across various wavelengths.

9) In early 2022, a geomagnetic storm triggered by a coronal mass ejection from the sun knocked out 40 of the 49 SpaceX Starlink satellites belonging to Elon Musk. It is these mass ejections that Aditya-L1 will be studying

10) While L1 will be inhabited by Aditya, L2 is home to the James Webb Space Telescope since early last year.

11) Aditya L1 will be placed in a low-Earth orbit before it is slingshot towards L1 using the craft's onboard propulsion.

12) After this, India’s solar probe will cruise before being injected into a large halo orbit around L1.