Aditya-L1, India's first solar space observatory mission launched on September 2, is currently in its third Earth-bound manoeuvre, which was carried out by scientists from the Isro Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (Istrac).
The spacecraft is now in an orbit of 296km x 71,767km and the next Earth-bound manoeuvre is scheduled on September 15.
Stating that last week’s manoeuvre took place at 2.30 am, Isro said: “Ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR (Sriharikota) and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation.”
After September 15 manoeuvre, it will have one more Earth-bound manoeuvre, being carried out for the spacecraft to gain the necessary velocity for its journey to reach L1, which is about 1.5 million km from earth.
Aditya-L1 will perform a Trans-Lagrangian1 Insertion (TLI) manoeuvre on the 16th day following the launch date once the Earth-bound manoeuvres are finished, starting the start of its 110-day journey to L1.
Aditya-L1 takes selfie, pics of Earth & Moon
Aditya-L1 has sent a “selfie and images of the Earth and the Moon”, marking the first photographs captured by the spacecraft since its launch on September 2. Isro shared the images which were taken on September 4.
The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) for Corona imaging and spectroscopy investigations and the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) for narrow band and broadband photosphere and chromosphere imaging are both visible in the selfie. Another image captured by the spacecraft's internal camera shows Earth from a close-up perspective with the Moon in the distance.