The spacecraft is now in an orbit of 256km x 1,21,973km, Isro said, adding that its ground stations in Mauritius, Bengaluru, Sriharikota and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation, while a transportable terminal currently stationed in the Fiji islands for Aditya-L1 will support post-burn operations.
A day ahead of the launch, Isro had said that post launch, Aditya-L1 would stay in Earth-bound orbits for 16 days, during which it would undergo five manoeuvres to gain the necessary velocity for its journey. Subsequently, it would undergo a Trans-Lagrangian1 Insertion (TLI) manoeuvre, marking the beginning of its 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point.
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On Friday, Isro said: “The next manoeuvre, TLI — a send-off from the Earth — is scheduled for September 19, 2023, around 2am.”.
Upon arrival at L1, another manoeuvre will bind Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1. The L1 — about 1.5-million-km from Earth — refers to Lagrange Point-1 of the Sun-Earth system. It is a location in space where the gravitational forces of two celestial bodies, such as the Sun and Earth, are in equilibrium. This allows an object placed there to remain relatively stable with respect to both celestial bodies.
Aditya-L1 will spend its whole mission life orbiting around L1 in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the Earth and the Sun