Bengaluru: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced yesterday that it will launch its first spacecraft to survey the Sun on Sept. 2 at 11.50 am, days after it created history by reaching close to the south pole of the Moon from where its Chandrayaan-3 has been sending the first readings about the atmosphere and the surface.

The solar mission will be carried out by the Aditya-L1, which will be launched from the Sriharikota spaceport on ISRO’s workhorse rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. After travelling 125 days to reach a distance of 1.5 million km from the Earth, it will stay put for an as yet unannounced duration of time.

“Aditya-L1 is the first space-based observatory-class Indian solar mission to study the Sun. The spacecraft is planned to be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth,” said a document released by ISRO, detailing                 the project.

“A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/eclipse. This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities continuously. The spacecraft will carry seven payloads to observe,” it added.

The mission is ambitious for several reasons. First, is the challenge of stationing a craft at a Lagrange point, which India has not done before.  Second, the nature of new insights that the spacecraft can bring. It will carry seven payloads, including four to observe the Sun’s outermost layers.