ISRO Aditya-L1 completes halo orbit L1
ISRO: The Aditya-L1 spacecraft, known as India’s solar observatory, has completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 (L1), mission officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced. The Aditya-L1 spacecraft, known as India’s solar observatory, has completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 (L1), mission officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced. Aditya-L1 was launched into low Earth orbit (LEO) on September 2 last year by an Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle – XL (PSLV-XL) variant. Sun-Earth L1 is the point where the gravitational pull of the two massive bodies – Sun and Earth – will be equal and hence the spacecraft will not be attracted towards either of them.The spacecraft was inserted into its targeted halo orbit on January 6 earlier this year. To complete one revolution around the L1 point, “Aditya-L1 spacecraft took 178 days”, ISRO said.
During its journey in the halo orbit, the spacecraft encountered a number of disturbing forces that acted to push it out of the targeted orbit.To maintain the orbit, the spacecraft had to undergo two station-keeping manoeuvres on February 22 and June 7.On Tuesday, the spacecraft performed its third station-keeping manoeuvre. And it is now “continuing in the second halo orbit path around L1”, the space agency said.
ISRO said, “This journey of Aditya L1 around the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point involved modelling of complex dynamics. Understanding of various perturbing forces acting on the spacecraft helped in accurately determining the trajectory and planning precise orbit manoeuvres.” The third manoeuvre also validates the state-of-the-art flight dynamics software developed in-house at URSC-ISRO for the Aditya-L1 mission. Aditya-L1, dedicated to the study of the Sun, carries seven payloads. It will observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers (corona) of the Sun using electromagnetic, particle and magnetic field detectors.
