The first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun – Aditya-L1, is getting ready for its launch next month. ISRO said that the satellite, developed at U R Rao Satellite Centre Bengaluru, has arrived at its spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The spacecraft is expected to be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point – L1 of the Sun-Earth system, which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth. A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has a major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real-time.

The spacecraft will carry seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun's corona using electromagnetic and particle field detectors. Using its special vantage point, four payloads will directly view the Sun and the other three payloads would carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields around it, thus providing important scientific studies of the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium.