India’s first space-based observatory to study the Sun, Aditya-L1, is headed to the Lagrangian 1 (L1) point as ISRO carried out the Trans-Lagrangian 1 Insertion (TL1I) manoeuvre in the early hours of September 19.
The TL1I manoeuvre marks the beginning of Aditya-L1’s 110-day journey towards the L1 point which lies between the Sun-Earth line. L1 is about 1.5 million km from the Earth and the distance of L1 from Earth is approximately 1% of the Earth-Sun distance.
“Off to Sun-Earth L1 point! The Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuvre is performed successfully. The spacecraft is now on a trajectory that will take it to the Sun-Earth L1 point. It will be injected into an orbit around L1 through a maneuver after about 110 days. This is the fifth consecutive time ISRO has successfully transferred an object on a trajectory toward another celestial body or location in space,” ISRO posted on X.
