ISRO's Aditya-L1 Completes 1st Earth-Bound Manoeuvre Successfully

ISRO said that its Aditya-L1 has successfully completed its first Earth-bound manoeuvre. The next target has been scheduled for Tuesday.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday said it has successfully performed the first earth-bound manoeuvre of the country's maiden solar mission, Aditya L1, and a new orbit of 245 X 22,459 kilometres was attained, adding that the satellite was healthy and operating normally. The next manoeuvre (EB#2) has been scheduled for September 5, 2023, at around 3:00 am IST. 

While taking to X (formerly known as Twitter, ISRO wrote, "Aditya-L1 Mission: The satellite is healthy and operating nominally. The first Earth-bound manoeuvre (EBN#1) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. The new orbit attained is 245km x 22459 km. The next manoeuvre (EBN#2) is scheduled for September 5, 2023, around 03:00 Hrs. IST

ISRO launched Aditya-L1 on Saturday from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. This mission aims to study the outer atmosphere of the sun by placing the first-ever solar observatory of India at the Sun-Earth L1 Point. L1 stands for Lagrange Point 1, the place where the spacecraft would be stationed.

The satellite has started generating power as the solar panels have been deployed. As per the information shared by ISRO, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft will remain to be around 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth and it will be directed towards the Sun, which is about one per cent of the Earth-Sun distance.

The spacecraft will neither land on the Sun nor will it attempt to approach the Sun any closer, news agency PTI reported.