Aditya-L1 Mission Launch Date, Timings Announced By ISRO

India's pioneering space-based solar mission, Aditya-L1, is set for launch on September 2, 2023, from Sriharikota, as declared by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday. The mission, spanning five years, aims to investigate the Sun's phenomena. It will be deployed atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at 11:50 am IST from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to remotely examine the solar corona and acquire in situ data of the solar wind at L1, the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point, located around 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. This will mark India's maiden dedicated space mission for solar observation, overseen by the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency.

The Aditya-L1 mission, tailored for comprehensive Sun study from the L1 orbit, incorporates seven payloads for observing the photosphere, chromosphere, and the outermost solar layers known as the corona, across various wavebands. This endeavor represents a fully indigenous initiative with active participation from national institutions, confirmed an ISRO official.

The lead institute responsible for the development of the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph payload is the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Bengaluru. Additionally, the Solar Ultraviolet Imager payload has been developed for the mission by the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune.

Aditya-L1 will supply insights on the corona, solar chromosphere using UV payload, and solar flares through X-ray payloads. The particle detectors and magnetometer payload will furnish information about charged particles and magnetic fields, pertaining to the halo orbit around L1. The satellite, built at U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, reached the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh two weeks prior. "The launch is most likely to take place on September 2," disclosed an ISRO official.

Planned to be positioned in a halo orbit encompassing the L1 of the Sun-Earth system, the spacecraft's strategic location offers a continuous view of the Sun without interference from occultations or eclipses, noted ISRO. This distinctive perspective at L1 grants four payloads direct solar observation capabilities, while the remaining three perform in-situ research on particles and fields, facilitating insightful studies of solar dynamics' influence on interplanetary space.

ISRO underlined, "The Aditya-L1 payloads are expected to provide crucial information regarding coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities, and their attributes, dynamics of space weather, and propagation of particles and fields."

The mission's primary scientific objectives encompass the examination of solar upper atmospheric dynamics including the chromosphere and corona, investigation of chromospheric and coronal heating, plasma physics%