Indias first space-based mission to study the Sun, Aditya L1, has successfully completed its fourth earth-bound manoeuvre in the early hours of Thursday, announced by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the social media platform X(Twitter).“The fourth Earth-bound manoeuvre (EBN#4) is performed successfully. Isros ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation, while a transportable terminal currently stationed in the Fiji islands for Aditya-L1 will support post-burn operations,” the space agency wrote on X.The post further said that the new orbit attained is 256 km x 121973 km. “The next manoeuvre Trans-Lagragean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) — a send-off from the Earth — is scheduled for September 19, around 02:00 Hrs. IST.”Aditya-L1 Mission:The fourth Earth-bound maneuvre (EBN#4) is performed successfully. ISROs ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation, while a transportable terminal currently stationed in the Fiji islands for… pic.twitter.com/cPfsF5GIk5— ISRO (@isro) September 14, 2023 What will Aditya-L1 do after completion of its fourth manoeuvreAditya-L1 is the first Indian space-based observatory to study the Sun from a halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from the Earth. The solar mission is set to undergo a total of five orbit-raising manoeuvres to achieve the required pace for the satellite to reach its destination.The first, second and third earth-bound manoeuvre was successfully performed on September 3, 5 and 10 respectively.After completing its fourth maneuvre, Aditya-L1 will next undergo a Trans-Lagrangian1 insertion manoeuvre. This will mark the beginning of its nearly 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point.Once the spacecraft reaches the L1 Lagrange point, Aditya-L1 is bound by another manoeuvre to an orbit around L1, a balanced gravitational location between the Earth and the Sun.The whole life mission of the satellite is to orbit around the sun in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the Earth and the Sun.ISROs Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) on September 2 successfully launched the Aditya-L1 spacecraft from the Second Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota.After a flight duration of 63 minutes and 20 seconds that day, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft was successfully injected into an elliptical orbit of 235×19500 km around the Earth.
