Aditya-L1 spacecraft takes a selfie: ISRO

Chennai, Sep 7: Indian space agency on Thursday said the Aditya-L1 spacecraft has taken a selfie and the images of the Earth and the Moon.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Aditya-L1, that is destined for Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1), has taken a selfie and also the pictures of the Earth and the Moon.

ISRO has uploaded the images on the social media platform X.

The Aditya-L1, India’s space based solar observatory was orbited in low earth orbit (LEO) on September 2 by an Indian rocket called Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle -XL (PSLV-XL) variant.

The spacecraft’s orbit has been raised by ISRO twice since then.

As the spacecraft travels towards Lagrange Point (L1), it will exit the earth’s gravitational Sphere of Influence (SOI).  After the exit from SOI, the cruise phase will start and subsequently the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo orbit around the L1 -- the point where the gravitational pull of two large bodies -- Sun and Earth -- will be equal and hence the spacecraft will not gravitate towards any one of the planet.

The total travel time from launch to L1 would take about four months for Aditya-L1 and the distance will be about 1.5 million km from the Earth.