Launch Details
- Mission Name - PSLV-C57 / Aditya-L1
- Lift Off - 11:50 AM IST, 02nd September 2023
- Pad - Second Launch Pad, SDSC
- Rocket - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)
- Variant - PSLV XL
- Payload - Aditya L1
- Payload Mass - 1480 Kg
- Orbit - Highly Eccentric Earth orbit.
About the Launch
Aditya-L1 is a satellite dedicated to the comprehensive study of the Sun. It has 7 distinct payloads developed, all developed indigenously. Five by ISRO and two by Indian academic institutes in collaboration with ISRO.
Aditya in Sanskrit means the Sun. L1 here refers to Lagrange Point 1 of the Sun-Earth system. For common understanding, L1 is a location in space where the gravitational forces of two celestial bodies, such as the Sun and Earth, are in equilibrium. This allows an object placed there to remain relatively stable with respect to both celestial bodies.
Following its scheduled launch on September 2, 2023, Aditya-L1 stays Earth-bound orbits for 16 days, during which it undergoes 5 maneuvres to gain the necessary velocity for its journey. Subsequently, Aditya-L1 undergoes a Trans-Lagrangian1 insertion maneuvre, marking the beginning of its 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point. Upon arrival at the L1 point, another maneuvre binds Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1, a balanced gravitational location between the Earth and the Sun. The satellite spends its whole mission life orbiting around L1 in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the Earth and the Sun.
About the Rocket
- Specifications
- Payload to Orbit
- Cost per launch
Height - 44 m
Core Diameter - 2.8 m
Stages - Boosters (0,2,4,6x - S12)
1st Stage (S139)
2nd Stage (1 Vikas)
3rd Stage (S7)
4th Stage (2x - L2.5)
Liftoff Mass - 320 tonne
LEO - 3800 kg
SSO - 1750 kg
GTO - 1300 kg
$25 million (estimated)
About the Payload
Aditya L1 shall be the first space based Indian mission to study the Sun. The spacecraft shall be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth. A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time. The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors. Using the special vantage point L1, four payloads directly view the Sun and the remaining three payloads carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields at the Lagrange point L1, thus providing important scientific studies of the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium.
The suits of Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide most crucial informations to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particle and fields etc.
