India launched a rocket carrying a solar probe on Saturday for a four-month journey to the Sun, a moment that was broadcast live by the Indian Space Research Organization, which promotes the mission.
After the rocket lifted off on time from the launch pad on Sriharikota Island in southern India, mission control technicians cheered.
The launch comes just over a week after India landed a robotic probe on the moon’s south pole, an unprecedented feat in space exploration.
The Aditya-L1 satellite will be positioned 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, at the so-called Lagrange point 1 (L1).
Aditya, which means Sun in Hindi, will record solar activity, particularly the dynamics of solar winds (the continuous emission of subatomic particles from the solar corona) and their effects on space weather.
The device is equipped with seven modules to observe two of the outer layers of the Sun’s atmosphere – the chromosphere and the corona – and detectors of electromagnetic fields and particles, according to the Indian space organization.
Europe and the United States already have probes that observe the Sun, Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar, but this is the first time that India has embarked on the study of the star.
Aditya-L1 began to generate power.
Solar panels are deployed.The first ground shot to raise the orbit is scheduled for September 3, 2023, around 11:45 a.m. ist pic.twitter.com/AObqoCUE8I
-ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023
On August 23, India became the first country to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole, an uncharted region where vast amounts of water ice will be present.
It is in this region that the United States wants to place the first female astronaut and the first black astronaut in December 2025, within the framework of the new Artemis lunar program.
Only the United States had astronauts on the surface of the Moon, between 1969 and 1972, all men, as part of the Apollo program.
Source: TSF
