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Updated 17:12 IST, December 21st 2023

India's Aditya L-1 to reach Lagrange Point 1 by the first week of January | DEETS Inside

India's first solar mission, Aditya L1 is all set to reach its destination, Lagrange Point 1 by early January, said Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh.

Reported by: Bhagyasree Sengupta
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Aditya-L1 spacecraft lifts off on board a satellite launch vehicle from the space center in Sriharikota
Aditya-L1 spacecraft lifts off on board a satellite launch vehicle from the space center in Sriharikota | Image: AP

New Delhi: India's first solar mission, Aditya L1 is all set to reach its destination, Lagrange Point 1 by early January, said Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh. During an interview with Sansad TV in New Delhi, the Minister of Science and Technology assured that the pioneering mission is going as per schedule. He mentioned that after the Aditya L-1 reach its destination, scientists from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will conduct a series of tests related to India's maiden human space mission Gaganyaan. While the satellite has already travelled approximately 1.5 million km from Earth, its successful arrival at the L1 will mark a significant milestone in solar research. 

"Aditya-L1", India’s first solar mission, will reach its destination, Lagrange Point 1, early next month, to be precise, around the first week of January 2024," the Union Minister told Sansad TV on Monday. While emphasizing how India grew exponentially in the space sector, Singh noted that the country witnessed investment of over Rs.1,000 crore in Space Startups in the last nine months. “From just one Startup in the Space sector four years back, we have almost 190 private Space Startups after opening up of the sector and the earlier ones of them have now turned entrepreneurs,” he said.

Indian astronaut in ISS? 

During the interview, Singh recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington. He mentioned that NASA proposed to PM Modi to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS). Singh highlighted that the project will be materialised next year. The union minister stressed that India is utilizing Space Applications in almost all sectors such as Infrastructure Development, ‘Svamitva’ GPS land-mapping, Smart Cities etc. “Space research now touches each and every person’s life in one way or the other,” he said, adding Atomic Energy is today being used for Clean Energy and in food preservation and the medical field.

According to ISRO, a satellite placed around the L1 has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipses. This will give ISRO a greater advantage in observing solar activities and their effect on space weather in real time. According to the Indian Space Agency, the spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors.

Published 17:11 IST, December 21st 2023