Sunshine Moment As India’s Space Program Begins To Study The Sun

SRIHARIKOTA (IANS) – India’s workhorse rocket PSLV successfully put its Aditya-L1 spacecraft to study the Sun into an intermediate orbit or low earth orbit on September 2 afternoon.

From there, begins a long 125-day journey for Aditya-L1- named after the Sun god in Hindu mythology- as it must travel about 1.5 million km to its intended slot to study the Sun.

Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization Dr S. Somanath said, “The Aditya-L1 spacecraft has been injected in its intended orbit. It is a different mission. From now on, Aditya-L1 will start its 125-day journey to L1 (Lagrange Point 1).”

Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh, who witnessed the launch here, said: “It is a sunshine moment for India.”

Slowly rising towards the skies with a thick orange flame at its tail, the rocket gained speed with a sound resembling rolling thunder and went up and up leaving a thick plume while the people assembled at the viewers’ gallery cheered and clapped.

About 63 minutes after the lift off, the rocket ejected Aditya-L1 and the whole mission came to an end at about 73 minutes after the passivation of the fourth stage.

“We must meet the argument of perigee of the satellite. For that we are following two burn strategies for the fourth stage. After first burn there is a long coasting to achieve the argument of perigee that occurs naturally,” Dr S Unnikrishnan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.