Surya sey bhi door jayenge: ISRO Chief Somanath after Aditya L1 makes history

ISRO Chairman S Somanath said that the Aditya-L1 observatory has been precisely placed into an orbit at the Lagrange Point 1 or L1 on January 6. While speaking to reporters, Somanath said that his team will observe the observatory for the next few hours to be sure, although all data suggests that it is at the desired location.

"There has been an exact placement. But we are going to monitor for a few hours. And if it drifted we will do some corrections," Somanath said.

He said that Aditya's Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) is the primary instrument out of the seven that will study the Sun's corona, its outermost atmosphere. Other six instruments will be used for different purposes like studying the chromosphere, plasma and other dynamics of the Sun which affects the space weather.

In an exclusive conversation with Republic TV, Somanath reflected on the mission and revealed the way forward for ISRO with Gaganyaan.

It is a very complex journey where we have never gone before. We are very happy that the penultimate result of that journey has been accomplished today,” Somanath said.

When asked about the health of Aditya's seven instruments, he said, “they have not been tested to such extensive nature. They have been tested preliminary to see everything is working well. The scientists will work on it to make sure that the data coming from its is reliable to be used and distributed. So that process will be continued for a while.

Answering what's next for ISRO, he said, “Two more missions also have to happen next year. We are planning to do at least one unmanned mission, and we want to do the second one also next year.

Somanath also took pride in the fully indigenous nature of the Aditya-L1 mission. “It is full conceptualised and did by Indians. It is very proud moment for us to achieve such as a success with out homegrown knowledge and technology,” he said. 

Speaking on the success of the mission, Somanath said, “this mission is for the whole world.”

The ISRO chief also said that 2024 will be the preparatory year for the Gaganyaan program and the first mission will be launched in 2025.

In the next 25 years, we are going to make more developments. By 2040, the target is to go around the Moon back again with people," Somanath said. He laid out bigger plans for ISRO saying "Surya sey bhi door jayenge (we will go farther than the sun).

He said that Chandrayaan missions will be carried out more frequently in the future and that ISRO is also working on missions to Venus and Mars.