Indian rocket blasts off to place observatory on orbit around Sun

India launched its maiden expedition to the Sun just days after landing a spacecraft on the Moon to mark the South Asian power’s rapid ascend as a space-faring nation.

This image provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shows the Aditya-L1 spacecraft lifts off on board a satellite launch vehicle from the space center in Sriharikota, India, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023. AP

A 44-metre rocket carrying the 1.4-ton observatory blasted off at 11:50 am local time on Saturday. It will cover a distance of 932,000 in 125 days before deploying the probe in a halo orbit of the Sun to study the star’s corona and solar winds for five years.

Data sent by the probe carrying seven instruments will help satellite-dependent applications such as navigation, mobile-based internet services, telecommunications and power grids shield themselves from solar disturbances.

"All these years India has been observing the Sun using ground-based telescopes which have grown old now so it was very important that we go to space," said Dipankar Banerjee, director of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences.

"We have three spacecraft around L1 from NASA and the European Space Agency so I think this is a fantastic achievement," he said of 300 engineers who worked on the mission to the Sun, which is 150 million kilometres from Earth.

"This will really open a new window altogether," Banerji added after the launch of the observatory which is set to reach its parking slot in space called First Lagrangian point by mid-January 2024.

#WATCH | Crowd chants 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' as ISRO's PSLV rocket carrying Aditya L-1 lifts off from Sriharikota pic.twitter.com/5uI6jZfLvJ

— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2023

“Angry” Sun

The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph, the primary payload, will transmit an image a minute to ground stations and will offer views of the sun especially when it is "angry" or "burping," added scientist Annipurni Subramonium.

"We plan to study the corona, its dynamics, its velocity and eventually how much matter will come to the earth," said Subramonium, director of the Institute of Astrophysics which built the device that will create illusory solar eclipses within the onboard machine for clearer studies.

The Sun’s core temperature is 15 million degrees Celsius while its surface is 5,500 degrees Celsius and Aditya L1 will also try and crack the mystery of why its outer atmosphere – or corona – is 200 times hotter than the surface.

"It will take 125 days to reach its position and so I came to pray at the temple for the success of this very important launch," said S. Somanath, chairman of  Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which landed a spacecraft on the Moon on 23 August.

This image from video provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation shows the surface of the moon as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft prepares for landing on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. © ISRO via AP

Celestial parking

Aditya meaning Sun in Sanskrit will go into orbit after reaching L1 from which it takes its full name.

 L1 is one of the five Lagrangian points between Sun and Earth where their gravitational fields cancel each other and will hold the probe in line with the two celestial masses.

From that point, four of the seven onboard instruments will look directly at the Sun and analyse its "magnetic reconnection" which spews solar plasma at 11 million kilometres an hour, the scientists said.

"Aditya will offer a front-row seat to our universe’s hottest star without interference from eclipses and occultation," one of them remarked at the lift off.

• Indian spacecraft makes history after landing on Moon’s south pole

• India begins countdown to blast astronauts into space in 2024

"We can also get information about the environment around the L1 point which is key for understanding space weather," added A.N. Ramaprasad, one of the two top ISRO scientists who built the probe’s main telescopes.

Friday’s blast off came after Chandrayaan-3 carrying a lander and a moon buggy touched down on the lunar surface in its second attempt in a decade in a display of India’s growing technological muscle that aims to put humans on the Moon.

The feat sparked celebrations in India and at one point saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi tearfully facilitating ISRO personnel.

Jupiter, Venus next

ISRO has also put into orbit 424 commercial satellites from 34 countries and is now eyeing a larger slice of that global multi-billion-euro market.

"These are the first stepping stones of this generation and there will be other stepping stones taken by the next generation," comment ISRO chief Somanath, referring to India’s publicly stated plans to attempt expeditions to Venus and Jupiter.

Space-faring nations applauded when an Indian rocket reached Mars on its first attempt in 2014. The trip cost less money than was spent on the making of Hollywood movie "Gravity", released in 2013.