Aditya-L1 will remain roughly 1.5 million kilometres away from the earth, pointing towards the sun; this is about 1% of the distance between the earth and the sun.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) began the 23-hour 40-minute countdown to the launch of India’s first solar observatory mission, Aditya-L1, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 11:50 a.m. today.
At roughly 12:53 p.m., the PSLV will launch the Aditya-L1 spacecraft into a very eccentric earth-bound orbit.
This PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1 mission is one of the longest utilising ISRO’s workhorse launch vehicle. The longest PSLV mission, however, is still the 2016 PSLV-C35 mission, which was completed two hours, 15 minutes, and 33 seconds after liftoff.
The Aditya-L1 mission will be the 25th PSLV-XL type flight.
Aditya-L1 will spend 16 days in earth-bound orbits after launch, during which time it will do five manoeuvres to increase its speed.
Aditya-L1 will remain pointed towards the sun at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres, or roughly 1% of the distance between the earth and the sun.
