Aditya L1 set to reach its destination on Jan 6: ISRO chief

Indias maiden solar mission Aditya L1 launched on September 2 is set for its final manoeuvre to reach its intended destination L1 point on January 6 ISRO Chairman S Somanath told ANI on MondayAditya L1 is going to reach its L1 point on January 6 and we are going to do the final manoeuvre to keep it there the ISRO chief said on the sidelines of the successful launch of XPoSat mission to study black holesSo far in its journey the spacecraft has undergone four earthbound manoeuvres and a TransLagrangean Point 1 Insertion TL1I manoeuvres all successfullyAddressing reporters on the very first day of 2024 Somanath said ISRO has about 1214 missions in pipeline this yearOnly in 12 months in 2024 we have to have a minimum of 12 missions on our target It may exceed depending upon our ability to produce hardware complete the testing and if things go well If it is not going well there could be an impact Otherwise we are getting ready for at least 1214 missions he said without getting into much of the specificsAbout the Gaganyaan mission he said at least two more abort missions would be done one unmanned mission though target to do two parachutes drop tests and 100s of valuation tests would be conducted before the actual launch in 20252024 is going to be the year for Gaganyaan readinessAlong with that we will have a helicopterbased drop test to prove the parachute systems there will be multiple drop tests We also will have many hundreds of valuation tests So it is going to be a Gaganyaan year ISRO chief addedMeanwhile earlier today the Xray Polarimeter Satellite XPoSat to study Xray emission from various celestial sources was launched successfully and its liftoff was normalAddressing the scientists after the successful launch of the mission Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO chief S Somanath said the PSLVC58 vehicle placed the satellite precisely into the intended orbit of 650 km with a 6degree inclinationFrom this point the orbit of the PSLV will be reduced to a lower orbit where the upper stage of the PSLV which is now described as POEM will carry out experiments with nine of the onboard payloads and that will take some time Somanath addedIt is Indias first observation of black holes though other countries have done such studies earlierSomanath said it took 7 years to build this satelliteWe want to create at least 100 scientists who can understand this aspect and contribute to the knowledge of black holes to the world he addedIn a stellar display of prowess India soared to new heights in 2023 with the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan3 on the south pole of the moon and the launch of Aditya L1 Indias first solar missionThese milestones not only secured Indias standing in the global space economy but also fueled the engines for the private space sector in IndiaAmong other feats India now aims for are the Gaganyaan Mission in 20242025 setting up Bharatiya Antariksha Station by 2035 and sending the first Indian to the Moon by 2040This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever