<p>Bengaluru: Aditya-L1, India’s first space-based observatory to study the sun, on Tuesday completed its first halo orbit around L1, the first Lagrangian point in the sun-earth system.</p><p>The spacecraft in the halo orbit, located about 1.5 million km from the earth, takes 178 days to complete a revolution around L1.</p><p>Launched on September 2, 2023, the spacecraft was inserted in its targeted halo orbit on January 6, 2024. This is a three-dimensional orbit at L1 that involves the sun, the earth, and the spacecraft. ISRO selected the halo orbit to ensure a mission lifetime of five years and minimal station-keeping manoeuvres to facilitate an unobstructed view of the sun.</p>.The link between Aditya L1 and geomagnetic storms. <p>The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the spacecraft in the halo orbit is subjected to various perturbing forces that can drive it off the targeted orbit. Aditya-L1 underwent two station-keeping manoeuvres, on February 22 and June 7, to maintain this orbit.</p><p>A third such manoeuvre, performed on Tuesday, has ensured that the spacecraft’s travel continued into the second halo orbit path around L1, ISRO said.</p><p>ISRO, with its understanding of the perturbing forces at play, could determine the spacecraft’s trajectory accurately and plan the orbit manoeuvres. “With today's manoeuvre, the state-of-the-art flight dynamics software developed in-house at URSC (U R Rao Satellite Centre)-ISRO for the Aditya-L1 missions stands fully validated,” the space agency said.</p><p>Through an illustration of Aditya-L1’s trajectory around L1, ISRO demonstrated how the two previous station-keeping manoeuvres kept the spacecraft in its orbit.</p><p>The final firing of the thrusters on Tuesday placed the spacecraft back in its original orbit. The illustration showed how an inaccurate firing could have moved the spacecraft onto a different trajectory.</p><p>In June, two payloads on board the observatory – the Solar Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) and the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) – had acquired images of the sun after the solar flares and coronal mass ejections on May 10 and 11.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: Aditya-L1, India’s first space-based observatory to study the sun, on Tuesday completed its first halo orbit around L1, the first Lagrangian point in the sun-earth system.</p><p>The spacecraft in the halo orbit, located about 1.5 million km from the earth, takes 178 days to complete a revolution around L1.</p><p>Launched on September 2, 2023, the spacecraft was inserted in its targeted halo orbit on January 6, 2024. This is a three-dimensional orbit at L1 that involves the sun, the earth, and the spacecraft. ISRO selected the halo orbit to ensure a mission lifetime of five years and minimal station-keeping manoeuvres to facilitate an unobstructed view of the sun.</p>.The link between Aditya L1 and geomagnetic storms. <p>The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the spacecraft in the halo orbit is subjected to various perturbing forces that can drive it off the targeted orbit. Aditya-L1 underwent two station-keeping manoeuvres, on February 22 and June 7, to maintain this orbit.</p><p>A third such manoeuvre, performed on Tuesday, has ensured that the spacecraft’s travel continued into the second halo orbit path around L1, ISRO said.</p><p>ISRO, with its understanding of the perturbing forces at play, could determine the spacecraft’s trajectory accurately and plan the orbit manoeuvres. “With today's manoeuvre, the state-of-the-art flight dynamics software developed in-house at URSC (U R Rao Satellite Centre)-ISRO for the Aditya-L1 missions stands fully validated,” the space agency said.</p><p>Through an illustration of Aditya-L1’s trajectory around L1, ISRO demonstrated how the two previous station-keeping manoeuvres kept the spacecraft in its orbit.</p><p>The final firing of the thrusters on Tuesday placed the spacecraft back in its original orbit. The illustration showed how an inaccurate firing could have moved the spacecraft onto a different trajectory.</p><p>In June, two payloads on board the observatory – the Solar Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) and the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) – had acquired images of the sun after the solar flares and coronal mass ejections on May 10 and 11.</p>