ISRO chair S Somanath.
Credit: PTI Photo
Chennai: Aditya L1, India’s first solar observatory mission, will reach the L1 point on January 6 after a 125-day long journey from where it will study the Sun.
“It will reach the L1 point on January 6. We will do the final manoeuvres to keep it there,” ISRO chairman S Somanath said.
The L1 point is about 1.5 million km from the Earth, just 1 per cent of the 150 million km distance between the two. Reaching the L1 point will give India a greater advantage of observing solar activities continuously.
All the measurements will be made from the Lagrange point L1, while L5 is a good vantage point for studying the Earth-directed CME events and assessing the space weather, scientists said.
Apart from that ISRO also plans to conduct 12-14 missions in 2024 through PSLV, GSLV, and SSLV rockets. The INSAT-3DS mission, a weather satellite, is likely to be the second launch this year after the successful launch of XPOSAT on Monday.
“2024 will be a hectic year for us. We want to conduct one launch a month, which means 12 launches this year. Our plan is to launch 12-14 missions in 2024. We will have launches by PSLV, GSLV, and SSLV,” ISRO chairman S Somanath said.
The INSat-3DS, seventh satellite in the series, will be launched using the GSLV Mk-II rocket.
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