Aditya-L1 mission to be India’s first solar mission to take off in 2019

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch the India’s first mission to the Sun “Aditya-L1 mission” from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on the PSLV- XL launch vehicle in 2019. 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 800 km low earth orbit. It will be launched into the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system. This orbit has the advantage of allowing continuous monitoring of the sun. The main aim of the solar mission is to improve the understanding of dynamical processes of the sun?and help resolve some outstanding questions in solar physics.