India’s first solar observatory Aditya L1, has successfully concluded its halo orbit around Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point, announced ISRO on Monday.
Taking to X, ISRO said, ‘Today, Aditya-L1 completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point. Inserted on January 6, 2024, it took 178 days, to complete a revolution.’
Aditya-L1: Celebration of First Orbit Completion 🌞🛰️
Today, Aditya-L1 completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point. Inserted on January 6, 2024, it took 178 days, to complete a revolution.Today’s station-keeping manoeuvre ensured its seamless transition into… pic.twitter.com/yB6vZQpIvE
— ISRO (@isro) July 2, 2024
But as per ISRO, various forces can potentially deviate the observatory from its decided path. In order to prevent deviation, they have performed station keeping manoeuvres three times.
The first two manoeuvres respectively performed on February 22 and June 7, 2024. Then, the third manoeuvre happened on Monday (July 2), which ensured, that spacecraft transitioned into second halo around L1.
This success reflects the effectiveness of advanced dynamics software, which was manufactured at UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in Bengaluru.
Talking about manoeuvre ISRO said, ‘The mission’s success hinges on the precise modelling of complex dynamics and the accurate understanding of perturbing forces acting on the spacecraft. These factors are crucial in determining the trajectory and planning orbit manoeuvres with high precision.’
Through its diagram, it displayed the orbit of spacecraft, which is shown as a blue trajectory onto X-Y plane. The Green displays divergent path, which spacecraft would have taken without manoeuvring.
Meanwhile Aditya L1 mission is devoted to comprehensive study of Sun, which was launched on September 2, 2023, and was inserted into halo orbit on January 6, 2024.
It contains 7 payloads, which manufactured domestically in India. Out Of 7, Five were made by ISRO and 2 by Indian academic institutes with ISRO.