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CNN –
India launched its first spacecraft to explore the sun, building on a month of historic achievements in the country’s civilian space efforts.
The spacecraft, named Aditya-L1, lifted off from Sriharikota, an island off the Bay of Bengal, at 11:50 a.m. local time (2:20 a.m. ET) on Saturday. And it’s on its way to a parking spot in orbit, about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.
The successful launch of Aditya-L1 comes less than two weeks after the Indian Space Research Organization made history by landing its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface. This success made India only the fourth country in the world – and the second in the 21st century – to safely land a vehicle on the moon.
This mission is expected to be completed next week.
Meanwhile, Aditya-L1 is heading for its target at Lagrange point 1, an area between the Sun and Earth where the gravitational pull of both celestial objects cancels each other out. This location allows Aditya-L1 to remain in orbit with low fuel consumption, in a position optimal for observing solar activity.
This position “provides a greater advantage in observing solar activity and its impact on space weather in real time,” the space agency said.
The spacecraft is equipped with seven scientific instruments, four of which will be aimed directly at the Sun, while the others will study solar wind particles and magnetic fields passing the Lagrange Point 1.
The mission’s main objectives include studying the Sun’s upper atmosphere and various solar phenomena such as coronal mass ejections – or massive ejections of plasma from the Sun’s outermost layer.
The information gained from Aditya-L1’s experiments will provide a clearer picture of space weather, or the term used to describe the magnetic waves moving through our solar system. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, space storms can impact Earth if they reach our atmosphere, occasionally affecting satellites, radio communications and even power grids.
India’s Aditya-L1 will complement information collected by other missions to explore the Sun, including NASA’s ongoing Parker Solar Probe, which became the first spacecraft to “touch” the Sun in 2021.
India’s first dedicated solar mission strengthens the country’s status as an emerging space superpower.