India achieved a major milestone on Saturday, placing its first dedicated solar mission, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, in the Halo orbit. The country went gaga over this historic achievement, especially since this mission came at the back of India’s moon landing, the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Aditya-L1 reached Lagrange Point L1 on Saturday which is about 1.5 million km from earth. The PSLV-C57.1 rocket carrying the Aditya-L1 orbiter lifted off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, in September.
Aditya-L1 has seven different payloads on board to conduct a detailed study of the sun, four of which will observe the light from the sun and the other three will measure in-situ parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields.
Hailing the success of the Aditya-L1 mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India will continue to pursue new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity.
“India creates yet another landmark. India’s first solar observatory Aditya-L1 reaches its destination. It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists in realising among the most complex and intricate space missions. I join the nation in applauding this extraordinary feat. We will continue to pursue new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity,” he said in a post on X.
Union Minister of State Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said Aditya L1 will discover the mysteries of sun-earth connection. “From Moon walk to Sun Dance! What a glorious turn of year for Bharat! Under the visionary leadership of PM @narendramodi, yet another success story scripted by Team #ISRO. #AdityaL1 reaches its final orbit to discover the mysteries of Sun-Earth connection,” he said in a post on X.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also congratulated the scientists and said India’s space journey is unstoppable.
“Wings of Fire! Congratulations to the dedicated scientists at @ISRO for successfully inserting Bharat’s first solar observatory #AdityaL1 into its intended destination. First the moon, now the sun… our space journey is unstoppable!
Speaking to ANI, Jitendra Singh said that this mission is the third success story in the trilogy of success stories registered by team ISRO.
“Soon after this happened, the tweet that I posted began saying, ‘From moonwalk it is sun dance’ and indeed that reflects the sentiments of each and every Indian today. This is the third success story in the trilogy of success stories registered by Team ISRO,” Jitendra Singh said.
Listing out the trilogy of ISRO’s success stories the Union Minister said, “First it was Chandrayaan, the first one in the world to land on the southern pole of Moon, the XPoSat which had gone to explore the silent zone radiations and now the Aditya-L1 which is going to discover the mysteries of the sun which had either in the past eluded us or they got woven around fairytales and folklores.”
The Union Minister said that it is vital for India to understand the various phenomena associated with solar mechanisms since we have a “huge stake” in space.
“Now we have a huge stake in space, we have several satellites in space. It is important for us to understand the various phenomena associated with solar mechanisms, whether solar energy, interplanetary magnetic fields, solar winds, solar storms or the coronal ejections,” Jitendra Singh said.
“This is because they can sometimes be of our disadvantage and also at the same time can be used to the advantage of our missions as well. The findings that we will gather will be curiously looked forward to by the rest of the world, particularly those which are into space missions, even those who have started much before us,” he explained.
The Union Minister said that India is now ready to lead other nations in space technology and space economy has become an integral part of its growth story.
“India is no longer to be led by other countries, we are ready to lead others to give them cues. Space economy is also going to be an important part of India’s growth story in the next 25 years,” Singh said.
Soon after Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) placed the Aditya-L1 spacecraft into its final destination orbit, ISRO chief S Somanath said that the crucial mission is not just India’s alone but for the entire world.
“The solar mission, Aditya-L1 is for the whole world, not for India alone, for all of us to understand and make use of its scientific importance,” Somanath told ANI on Saturday.
The ISRO chief said scientists had to do several corrections so that the space satellite could be placed at the precise point.
“Today’s event was only placing the Aditya-L1 in the precise Halo orbit. So it was moving towards a high orbit, but we had to do a little bit of corrections to put it in the right place. So something like 31 metres per second velocity had to be given cumulatively to the satellite to keep it at the right orientation,” Somanath said. (ANI)
