India's Solar Mission Aditya-L1 has successfully performed its first Earth-bound manoeuvre, indicating it is healthy and “performing optimally”, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said on Sunday — a day after India’s first solar mission embarked on a 125-day journey before it is placed in a halo orbit about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.

The ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru performed the manoeuvre.

The space agency said the satellite is healthy and operating nominally. “The first Earth-bound maneuvre (EBN#1) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. The new orbit attained is 245km x 22459 km. The next maneuvre (EBN#2) is scheduled for September 5, 2023, around 03:00 Hrs. IST,” ISRO posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Post its successful launch ISRO said that the Aditya-L1 started generating the power and that the solar panels are deployed.

Following the launch Aditya-L1 stays Earth-bound orbits for 16 days, during which it undergoes 5 manoeuvres to gain the necessary velocity for its journey.

Subsequently, Aditya-L1 undergoes a Trans-Lagrangian1 insertion manoeuvre, marking the beginning of its 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point.

Upon arrival at the L1 point, another manoeuvre binds Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1, a balanced gravitational location between the Earth and the Sun.

The satellite spends its whole mission life orbiting around L1 in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the Earth and the Sun.

Source: TheHindu