The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Sunday revealed that its first solar mission, the Aditya L1, is successfully continuing its journey to the Sun. The satellite was placed in a halo orbit of the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, located 1.5 million km from Earth, allowing it to view the Sun continuously without eclipses. This will help the satellite better understand solar activity and its impact on space weather.

The Isro team, led by the mission director Thaddeus Baskar, said that the journey of the spacecraft was smooth and has crossed several milestones in the process. On Sunday, the organization’s X platform posted that the spacecraft performed a trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) for 16 seconds on October 6. This was done to correct its trajectory evaluated after the Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuver, which was performed on September 19. The spacecraft is now on its path towards a Halo orbit insertion around L1.

During the 110-day journey, the spacecraft will leave the Earth’s gravitational sphere and be injected into a large halo of the L1 point. This will allow the payloads onboard to directly observe the Sun and more precisely study its chromosphere, photosphere, corona, and magnetic environment. The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) will directly gaze at the Sun’s outer layer. It will also monitor the physics of partially-ionized plasma and the dynamics of coronal mass ejections, pre-flare activities, flares, and their characteristics, and the propagation of particles and fields in interplanetary space.

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Those above will be done with the help of seven different payloads. It will include the magnetometer, providing valuable information about the interplanetary magnetic field. The mission also has two cameras to capture high-resolution images of the Sun and its environs.

According to Shaji, the insertion of the satellite into a halo orbit at L1 is a significant milestone achieved by the ISRO. It is the first time the organization has achieved such a feat, and it will be beneficial in studying the Sun’s behavior and effects on Earth.

The ISRO chief went on to congratulate the team. He added that he is confident of the success of the solar mission. He praised the team for its dedication and commitment to the work. He further credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supporting the endeavor of the space agency.

It was a “high-energy” mission with a demanding schedule and challenging targets, Shaji noted. He congratulated the entire team for their efforts and praised the work of the ground teams as well. He commended the Isro Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network for its “amazing support.” He also spoke highly of the European Space Agency for helping with the mission. ESA was in charge of evaluating ISRO’s new orbit determination software, which is used for operating a spacecraft at a Lagrange point for the first time. Given the challenges involved in such a complex operation, it was a critical task.