06 January - Aditya-L1 successfully placed in Halo orbit

 

 

Above cancellation was released on occasion of  successfully placed of Aditya-L1 in Halo orbit

Halo-Orbit Insertion (HOI) of its solar observatory spacecraft, Aditya-L1 was accomplished at 16.00 Hrs (approx) on January 6, 2024 (IST). The final phase of the maneuver involved firing of control engines for a short duration.

The orbit of Aditya-L1 spacecraft is a periodic Halo orbit which is located roughly 1.5 million km from earth on the continuously moving Sun – Earth line with an orbital period of about 177.86 earth days. This Halo orbit is a periodic, three-dimensional orbit at L1 involving Sun, Earth and a spacecraft. This specific halo orbit is selected to ensure a mission lifetime of 5 years, minimising station-keeping manoeuvres and thus fuel consumption and ensuring a continuous, unobstructed view of sun.

The Aditya-L1 mission is an Indian solar observatory at Lagrangian point L1 for “Observing and understanding the chromospheric and coronal dynamics of the Sun” in a continuous manner. Placing the Aditya-L1 in a halo orbit around L1 point has advantages as compared to placing in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

• It provides a smooth Sun-spacecraft velocity change throughout the orbit, appropriate for helioseismology.
• It is outside of the magnetosphere of Earth, thus suitable for the "in situ" sampling of the solar wind and particles.
• It allows unobstructed, continuous observation of the Sun, and view of earth for enabling continuous communication to ground station