New Delhi: India’s ambitious Aditya-L1 spacecraft mission has shared striking images of the Earth and the Moon as it journeys towards its destination, the Lagrangian point (L1), located 1.5 million km from Earth. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) unveiled these captivating images on Twitter, including a selfie taken by Aditya-L1.
“Aditya-L1, en route to the Sun-Earth L1 point, takes a selfie and captures images of the Earth and the Moon,” announced the national space agency headquartered in Bengaluru.
These images showcase the VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) and SUIT (Solar Ultraviolet Imager) instruments, as observed by the camera aboard Aditya-L1 on September 4, 2023.
The mission commenced its journey from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on September 2. It has already successfully completed two earth-bound orbital maneuvers and is set to perform two more before being placed in a transfer orbit towards Lagrange point L1. Aditya-L1 is anticipated to reach its intended orbit at L1 after 125 days.
This solar probe achievement adds to ISRO’s growing list of accomplishments, coming less than a month after India’s triumph in reaching the lunar south pole in late August.
ISRO’s ongoing projects include a human spaceflight program, with plans to launch astronauts into orbit, possibly by 2025, according to ISRO Chairman S Somanath.
