The countdown has begun as its the last leg of the launch of the Aditya-L1.

Aditya-L1, India’s first solar space observatory mission, will be launched in PSLV’s 59th flight, after several years of development. So far, only the US and the European Space Agency (ESA) have independently (also jointly) launched solar missions while Germany has sent probes with US’s Nasa.

The PSLV, in its XL configuration, will place the spacecraft in a highly eccentric Earth-bound orbit, an elliptical orbit whose Perigee (closest point to Earth) is expected to be around 235km while the Apogee (farthest point from Earth) would be more than 19,000km.

From there, the spacecraft will perform multiple orbital manoeuvres by using its liquid apogee motors (LAM) — powerful engines that will play a critical role in taking it to its destination — to reach the Lagrange Point-1 (L1) about 1.5-million-km away. That is 1/100th of the distance between Earth and Sun.

Unlike a regular PSLV launch profile, which places the spacecraft into an orbit roughly under 25 minutes from lift-off, Aditya’s separation is projected to happen 63 minutes after the rocket blasts off from the second launch pad in Sriharikota.

This will be one of the longest PSLV missions ever undertaken.

Source: TimesofIndia