India to launch its first solar mission in 2020: ISRO chief

Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi: India is to launch Aditya-L1, its first mission to study the sun, in 2020, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K. Sivan said Thursday.The project will be an extension of the Gaganyaan mission.
“The aim of the mission is to keep a permanent eye on the sun without any disturbance. Aditya-L1 is meant to observe the solar corona,” Sivan told media in a press briefing. He said there are still a lot of things that are to be learnt about the sun.
Aditya-L1 mission is expected to be inserted in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) – which is 1.5 million km from the earth – so that there is a major advantage of continuously viewing the sun without any occultation/eclipses, Sivan added.
India to launch first solar mission in 2020 . India is to launch Aditya-L1, its first mission to study the sun, in 2020, K. Sivan said.
“The aim of the mission is to keep a permanent eye on the sun without any disturbance. Aditya-L1 is meant to observe the solar corona,” Sivan told media in a press briefing.
He said there are still a lot of things that are to be learnt about the sun.
Aditya-L1 mission is expected to be inserted in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) – which is 1.5 million km from the earth – so that there is a major advantage of continuously viewing the sun without any occultation/eclipses, Sivan added.