On September 4, ISRO shared some incredible images taken by Aditya-L1 of the Earth and Moon. This mission, destined for the Sun-Earth L1 point, captured these stunning snapshots.
ISRO, which stands for the Indian Space Research Organisation, shared this exciting news on X (formerly known as Twitter). Notably, Aditya-L1 took a selfie and snapped pictures of our Earth and the Moon.
Just a couple of days before, on September 5, ISRO announced that the second Earth-bound maneuver of Aditya-L1 had been carried out successfully. The operation was managed from the Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru. The first Earth-bound maneuver happened on September 3.
The second Earth-bound maneuver, or EBN2 as they call it, was a success with ISTRAC/ISRO’s ground stations in Mauritius, Bengaluru, and Port Blair closely tracking the satellite during this operation. This maneuver placed the satellite in a new orbit, measuring 282 km x 40225 km. The next maneuver, EBN3, is scheduled for September 10, 2023, around 02:30 Hrs. IST.
Notably, ISRO’s journey into space exploration continued with the launch of the Aditya L-1 spacecraft on September 2. This marked India’s first-ever space-based mission to study the Sun. The launch took place at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, and it placed the satellite precisely into its intended orbit.
The Aditya L-1 spacecraft’s unique feature is its placement into a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system. This point is located approximately 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth. The benefit of this position is that the satellite can continuously observe the Sun without being interrupted by eclipses. This capability will greatly enhance our ability to study solar activities and their impact on space weather in real-time, according to ISRO.
This remarkable launch followed closely on the heels of ISRO’s achievement of a successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface on August 23. In the latest update regarding the Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO reported that the Vikram Lander entered sleep mode around 08:00 Hrs. IST. Before that, in-situ experiments were conducted by ChaSTE, RAMBHA-LP, and ILSA payloads at the new location. The collected data was transmitted to Earth, and the payloads are now switched off. The Lander’s receivers remain active. The hope is that Vikram will awaken alongside Pragyan around September 22, 2023, once the solar power is depleted and the battery is drained.
