Aditya L1 Successfully Completes Second Earth-Bound Manoeuvre, Third One Scheduled for September 10: ISRO

The spacecraft will undergo two more earth-bound orbital manoeuvres before being placed in the transfer orbit towards the Lagrange point L1.

Aditya L1, the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun underwent the second earth-bound manoeuvre successfully, during the early hours on Tuesday, ISRO said. ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) carried out the operation.

“The second Earth-bound manoeuvre (EBN#2) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. ISTRAC/ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation. The new orbit attained is 282 km x 40225 km,” ISRO said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The suits of Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide the most crucial information to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, and propagation of particles and fields.

According to scientists, there are five Lagrangian points (or parking areas) between the Earth and the Sun where a small object tends to stay if put there. The Lagrange Points are named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange for his prize-winning paper — “Essai sur le Problème des Trois Corps, 1772.” These points in space can be used by spacecraft to remain there with reduced fuel consumption.

At a Lagrange point, the gravitational pull of the two large bodies (the Sun and the Earth) equals the necessary centripetal force required for a small object to move with them.