The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday carried out the first orbit-raising manoeuvre of Aditya-L1 spacecraft, the country’s first space-based observatory to study the sun, a day after the probe was placed in a low earth elliptical orbit by a PSLV XL launcher. Stating that the satellite was “healthy and operating nominally”, the ISRO said the first earth-bound manoeuvre had been “performed successfully” from ISTRAC, Bengaluru.
“The new orbit attained is 245 km x 22,459 km,” ISRO said and added that the next manoeuvre was scheduled for 03.00 hours (IST) on September 5. Aditya-L1 will stay in earth-bound orbits for 16 days. It is slated to undergo four more orbit-raising manoeuvres to gain the necessary velocity for its journey to its destination located 15 lakh km away from the earth, which is about 1 per cent of the distance between the earth and the sun.
After 16 days, the spacecraft will undergo a Trans-Lagrangian 1 insertion manoeuvre, marking the beginning of its 110-day cruise to its “home” around the L1 (Lagrange point 1). Upon arrival at the L1 point, another manoeuvre will bind Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1, a balanced gravitational location between the earth and the sun. The satellite will spend its whole mission life orbiting around L1.