Chennai

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As ISRO gears up for the launch of India's maiden mission to study the sun, Aditya-L1, the space agency Chairman Dr S Somanath has revealed the packed schedule that lies ahead. Dr Somanath offered prayers at the Changalamman Devi temple near the Satish Dhawan Space Centre spaceport, ahead of the 24-hour countdown that commences for the Aditya-L1/PSLV-C57 mission. 

"Today the countdown for PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1 is starting, (Saturday) tomorrow noon we will have the launch at 11:50. It'll take almost an hour for the satellite to reach the required location (orbit) and inject. It'll take another 125 days to travel from Earth to its destination L1 point or Lagrange Point," Dr Somanath said.

The L1 point is 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth and is barely one per cent of the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance. Queried on the risk of high temperature at the L1 point, he said that it would be similar to that of the Earth. 

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"After Aditya-L1, we have Gaganyaan test vehicle launch (for validating in-flight crew escape system) by October first or second week, then we have GSLV launch of INSAT-3DS satellite for India, then SSLV-D3 (third flight of India's newest and smaller rocket), then PSLV, then LVM3 and like that we continue," he said, regarding ISRO's upcoming missions. ISRO follows a financial year and therefore all aforesaid missions and more are likely to be executed only by March 2024. 

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On Wednesday (August 30), the Indian Space Agency completed the launch rehearsal and crucial checks ahead of Saturday's high-profile launch of the nation's maiden sun-observing mission. 

During a launch rehearsal, the entire process of the countdown is carried out in a simulated manner. The vehicle health checks, fuel filling processes, and monitoring of various technical parameters associated with the rocket and satellite are simulated and run through.

The purpose of a countdown is not just about the clock ticking away. Instead, the primary purpose of the countdown is to ensure that the specified tasks are carried out perfectly within the stipulated period. A series of tasks and safety measures have to be undertaken in preparation for the launch and that is what happens during the countdown. The launch rehearsal is a simulation of this entire process.

Also read | Aditya L1 launch live streaming: Here's how to watch ISRO's first solar mission launch on TV & online

The Aditya-L1 mission is slated for lift-off on Saturday noon, September 2 at 11:50 am Indian Standard Time (IST). The PSLV rocket in its XL configuration stands at the first launch pad of India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre Spaceport. 

According to ISRO, placing the spacecraft at the L1 point provides a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and their effect on space weather in real time. The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic, particle and magnetic field detectors.

Using the special vantage point L1, four payloads directly view the sun and the remaining three payloads carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields at the Lagrange point L1, thus providing important scientific studies of the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium.

Watch | Aditya-L1 mission: ISRO completes rehearsal successfully

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The Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide crucial information to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particle and fields, ISRO said.

Notably, the launch of Aditya-L1 comes barely 10 days after ISRO successfully soft-landed the Chandrayaan-3 craft near the lunar South Pole, thereby making India the first nation to do so. With this successful soft-landing, India became the fourth nation to ever soft-land a craft on the lunar surface. The erstwhile Soviet Union, USA and China are the other countries.

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