BENGALURU: Aditya-L1, India’s maiden mission to the Sun launched on September 2, 2023, has completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange 1 point, ISRO announced on Tuesday.The observatory satellite was inserted into its targeted halo orbit on January 6, 2024. The spacecraft has taken 178 days to complete a revolution around the L1 point. This extraordinary feat and crucial manoeuvre was possible because of the state-of-the-art flight dynamics software developed inhouse at UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in Bengaluru. Completing the orbit has made the software fully reliable, and validated the capability of Aditya-L1 missions.The spacecraft took a precise three-dimensional trajectory. The final firing of the thrusters on July 2 placed the spacecraft back in the required orbit. If an accurate firing was not done, the spacecraft would have moved away from the designated orbit. Through a graph, ISRO also showed if the critical manoeuvre hadn’t worked, what divergent path Aditya L1 would have been on.“It underwent two station-keeping manoeuvres on February 22 and June 7, respectively, to maintain this orbit. Today’s 3rd station-keeping manoeuvre has ensured that its travel continued into the revolution around the L1 point second halo orbit path around L1,” said ISRO in a statement.
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