BENGALURU—Following quickly on the success of India’s moon landing, the country’s space agency launched a rocket on Saturday to study the sun in its first solar mission. The rocket left a trail of smoke and fire as scientists clapped, as shown in a live broadcast on the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) website. India’s space agency later confirmed on social media that the satellite was now in orbit.
The broadcast of the launch was watched by over 860,000 viewers, and thousands of people gathered at a viewing gallery near the launch site to witness the probe take off. The mission of the Aditya-L1 spacecraft is to study solar winds, which can cause disturbances on earth and are commonly seen as auroras. Named after the Hindi word for the sun, the spacecraft took flight just a week after India made history by becoming the first country to land on the south pole of the moon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been advocating for India’s space missions to have a greater presence on the world stage, which is currently dominated by the United States and China. Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah described the launch as a “giant step” towards fulfilling Prime Minister Modi’s vision.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to travel 1.5 million km (930,000 miles) over four months, stopping near the sun in a Lagrange Point, a space parking lot where objects tend to stay put due to balancing gravitational forces. This reduces fuel consumption for the spacecraft. Sankar Subramanian, the principal scientist of the mission, stated that the unique data set gathered by the Aditya-L1 will provide valuable insights into the sun’s dynamics and the inner heliosphere, which is essential for current technology and space weather forecasting.
The mission’s data could also contribute to a better understanding of the sun’s impact on earth’s climate patterns, as well as the origins of solar wind. Additionally, the study of solar radiation and its effects on satellites in orbit is crucial, with the number of satellites increasing due to ventures like Elon Musk’s Starlink communications network.
India has taken steps to privatize space launches and aims to attract foreign investment as it aims to increase its share of the global launch market fivefold within the next decade. The success of ISRO is seen as indicative of India’s capabilities in the space sector, which has become a global business.