The final stages of Aditya L1, India's first space-based mission to study the Sun, are almost complete, and ISRO Chairman S Somanath anticipates that manoeuvres to enter the L1 point would be finished by January 7, 2024.
"Aditya is on the way. I think it has reached almost its final phase," the ISRO chief said on the sidelines of an event organised at VSSC to commemorate the 60th year of the First Sounding Rocket Launch.
He said that the last preparations for the spacecraft's entry into the L1 point are currently underway incrementally. "Possibly by January 7th, the final maneuvers will be done for entering into the L1 point," Somanath added.
Aditya L1 was successfully launched on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. It is anticipated that the spacecraft would enter a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1, which is thought to be the closest to the Sun, after travelling roughly 1.5 million km from Earth over 125 days. It will take and send images of the Sun for scientific research, among other things.