AN ISRO SUNRISE

NEW DELHI: India’s space programme got another roaring boost on Saturday when a PSLVC57 blasted off and successfully deposited the Aditya-L1 solar probe into an orbit from where the latter will set off on a fourmonth voyage towards the Sun, stamping the credo of the country as a major space power 10 days after Chandrayaan-3’s successful Moon landing.

- Soumya Pillai

The rocket left a trail of smoke as scientists clapped and crowds gathered at viewing galleries near the launch site cheered, before a tense 63-minute period as the rocket, in its four stages, took the spacecraft to an orbit outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. Here, theAditya-L1 will gather momentum before catapulting itself to a spot 1.5 million kilometres away.

“PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1 Mission: The launch of Aditya-L1 by PSLV-C57 is accomplished successfully. The vehicle has placed the satellite precisely into its intended orbit. India’s first solar observatory has begun its journey to the destination of SunEarth L1 point,” the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said in a statement after the 11.50am launch.

The L1 point mentioned in the statement refers to Lagrange Point 1, a region 1.5 million km fromEarth towards the Sun, where gravitational forces of celestial objects work in such a way that the spacecraft can be parked in what is known as a halo orbit — an oval that shifts on three axes.