New Delhi. Bharat’s first solar mission, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, has completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point.
ISRO said its station-keeping manoeuvre ensured its seamless transition into the second halo orbit. The Aditya-L1 mission, which is an Bharatiya solar observatory at Lagrangian point L1, was launched on September 2, 2023, and was inserted in its targeted halo orbit on January 6, 2024.
According to ISRO, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft in the halo orbit takes 178 days to complete a revolution around the L1 point. During its travel in the halo orbit, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft will be subjected to various perturbing forces that will cause it to depart from the targeted orbit, the space agency said.
During its travel in the halo orbit, Aditya-L1 spacecraft will be subjected to various perturbing forces that will cause it to depart from the targeted orbit. It underwent two station-keeping maneuvers on February 22 and June 7, respectively, to maintain this orbit. 3rd station-keeping maneuver has ensured that its travel continued in to the second halo orbit path around L1.
This journey of Aditya L1 around Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point involves modeling of complex dynamics. The understanding of various perturbing forces acting on the spacecraft helped in determining the trajectory accurately and planning precise orbit maneuvers. With today’s maneuver, the state-of-the-art flight dynamics software developed in-house at URSC-ISRO for the Aditya-L1 missions stands fully validated.
