India’s first space-based observatory to study the sun will be launched on Saturday, the country’s space agency said yesterday.
The announcement, in a post on X, comes days after India became the first country to land a spacecraft on the unexplored south pole of the moon.
Aditya-L1, India’s first space-based solar probe, aims to study solar winds, which can cause disturbance on Earth and are commonly seen as auroras.
The craft, named after the Hindi word for the sun, will be launched from the country’s main spaceport in Sriharikota using India’s heavy-duty launch vehicle, the PSLV, which will travel about 1.5million km, the agency said.
"The total travel time from launch to L-1 [Langrange point] would take about four months for Aditya-L1," the Indian Space Research Organisation said on X.
The government sanctioned the equivalent of about $US46 million ($NZ77m) for the mission in 2019.
