India’s first solar mission, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, completed its first halo orbit.
Aditya-L1 in the halo orbit took 178 days to complete a revolution around the L1 point.
The observatory satellite reached its targeted halo orbit on January 6, 2024.
This crucial part became possible with the state-of-the-art flight dynamics software developed at the UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC).
The spacecraft took a precise three-dimensional trajectory. On July 2, the final firing of the thrusters placed the spacecraft back in the required orbit.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft faced various strong and unsettling forces during its travel in halo orbit.
Aditya-L1 carried seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and corona of the sun using electromagnetic and particle detectors.
The Aditya-L1 mission, an Indian solar observatory at Lagrangian point L1, was launched on September 2, 2023.
Lagrange Point-1 (L1) is between the Sun and Earth. It is 1.5 million km from Earth.
