India's first mission to study the Sun scheduled for 2019: ISRO

New Delhi: Dominating the space scene with its commendable space program, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) now has its vision set on the Sun.

With probes currently circling Mars and the moon, ISRO Satellite Centre Director Mylswamy Annadurai recently revealed the space agency's plans to launch 'Aditya-L1', the first Indian mission to study the Sun, by the year 2020.

He also added that the space organisation is planning to launch four more important satellites in the next three months and is working to launch 70 satellites in the next three years.

According to ISRO, the Aditya-1 mission was conceived as a 400kg class satellite carrying one payload, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and was planned to launch in a 800 km low earth orbit.

A Satellite placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses.

Therefore, the Aditya-1 mission has now been revised to “Aditya-L1 mission” and will be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth. The satellite carries additional six payloads with enhanced science scope and objectives.

The project has been approved and the satellite will be launched in the 2019 – 2020 timeframe by PSLV-XL from Sriharikota, ISRO said.