Aditya-L1: India carves out its place near the Sun

Just a few days back, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted its third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 and the Pragyan rover is effectively unveiling the lunar mysteries at the south pole. Today, ISRO launched its first space observatory mission, Aditya-L1. Check highlights of the mission here:

1. ISRO live broadcasted the whole launch of the PSLV-C57 rocket, the crowd were cheering happily seeing and listening to the strong vibrating sound of the rocket launch.

2. ISRO announced that the "Launch successful, all normal," from mission control as the craft exited the Earth’s atmosphere.

3. As per reports, the spacecraft will take about 125 days to reach the Lagrange point 1 (L1). The craft consists of seven payloads that will conduct the study of the Sun.

4. The United States and the European Space Agency (ESA) have conducted several observatory missions to the centre of the solar system. Japan and China also contributed towards the study of the solar environment.

5. If India is successful in placing the spacecraft at the L1 point, then it will become the first Asian country to be placed in orbit around the Sun.

6. Astrophysicist Somak Raychaudhury told broadcaster NDTV on Friday, "It's a challenging mission for India." He also added that the mission will study coronal mass ejections and huge discharges of plasma and magnetic energy from the Sun's atmosphere.

7. The Sun is very active during this point as it is nearing the peak of its 11-year solar cycle. Experts believe that solar bursts are so massive that can affect Earth and satellite operations.

8. Aditya-L1 aims to identify such massive bursts and send warning signals so that actions can be taken on time such as turning off the satellite’s power.

9. AFP reports that ISRO has designed a 320-tonne PSLV XL rocket to conduct Indian space programmes. Now, experts say that India is creating exceptional milestones in very budget-friendly ways.

10. India has shown the world that it can conduct big missions on a tight budget going as far back as its first moon mission in 2008.

11. According to experts, India's cost-effectiveness shows its capability to replicate and modify existing technology.

12. Within the next two years, ISRO plans to launch an orbital mission to Venus and a Moon mission with Japan.