The ISRO has successfully performed the first earth-bound manoeuvre of the country's maiden solar mission Aditya L1. The space agency added that the satellite was healthy and operating nominally.
"The first Earth-bound manoeuvre (EBN#1) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. The new orbit attained is 245km x 22459 km. The next manoeuvre (EBN#2) is scheduled for September 5, 2023, around 03:00 Hrs IST," ISRO said in its latest tweet on Sunday.
India's maiden solar mission, Aditya L1, was launched on Saturday from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, aiming to study the sun's outer atmosphere. The solar observatory will be placed at the Sun-Earth L1 point, which stands for Lagrange point 1.
According to ISRO, Aditya-L1 will stay approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth, directed towards the sun which is about one per cent of the Earth-sun distance. It will neither land on the sun nor approach the sun any closer.
Pragyan enters sleep mode
Chandrayaan 3's rover 'Pragyan' has been set into sleep mode after it completed its assignments on the lunar surface, the ISRO said on Saturday. The lander and rover were designed only for lunar daytime, equivalent to nearly 14 days on Earth as its electronics are not designed to withstand very low temperatures.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate only for one Lunar day, which is equivalent to nearly 14 days on Earth. That is because the electronics are not designed to withstand very low temperatures, less than -120 degrees Celsius, during the nighttime on the Moon.
However, the space agency is hopeful of awakening the lander and rover after 14 days. "The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander. Currently, the battery is fully charged."
"The solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on. Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments! Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador," ISRO tweeted on X.