ISRO’s Aditya-L1 completes first halo orbit around Sun-Earth L1 point

Bengaluru: India’s first solar mission Aditya-L1 spacecraft completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point on Tuesday, ISRO said.

The space agency said its station-keeping manoeuvre on Tuesday ensured its seamless transition into the second halo orbit.

The Aditya-L1 mission, which is an Indian 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, 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, Aditya-L1 spacecraft will be subjected to various perturbing forces that will cause it to depart from the targeted orbit, the space agency said.

“Aditya-L1 underwent two station-keeping manoeuvres on February 22 and June 7, respectively, to maintain this orbit. Today’s third station-keeping manoeuvre has ensured that its travel continued in the second halo orbit path around L1,” ISRO said.

The agency explained that Aditya L1’s journey 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 manoeuvres, it added.

“With today’s manoeuvre, the state-of-the-art flight dynamics software developed in-house at URSC-ISRO for the Aditya-L1 missions stands fully validated,” ISRO said.