India Launches Satellite for Solar Observation... Asia's First if Successful

India has launched a solar observation satellite for its first solar observation mission. If successful, it will be the first Asian country to achieve this.

On the 2nd, the 'Aditya L1' spacecraft was launched aboard a satellite launch vehicle at the space center in Sriharikota, India. [Source=AP Yonhap News]

According to local media on the 2nd (local time), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the 'Aditya L1' satellite from the Sriharikota space center in Andhra Pradesh at 11:50 a.m.

Aditya L1 was carried by India's domestically produced launch vehicle 'PSLV C57' and is expected to travel for 125 days to reach its target, the Lagrange Point 1. The PSLV C57 weighs 320 tons. The Lagrange Point 1, located between the Sun and Earth, is about 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth.

Equipped with seven instruments, Aditya L1 will settle into an orbit around Lagrange Point 1, allowing continuous observation of the Sun. Continuous observation without obstruction is impossible from Earth. The Lagrange Point 1 is also where the gravitational effects of the Sun and Earth cancel each other out.

After orbit insertion, Aditya L1 plans to observe the solar atmosphere, including corona heating and solar wind. Corona heating refers to the process by which the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, remains hot, but the heating mechanism is still unknown.

This satellite launch occurred just 10 days after India successfully landed its unmanned lunar probe Chandrayaan 3 on the Moon's south pole on the 23rd of last month.