India’s first space mission to study sun reaches destination

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s inaugural solar mission, Aditya-L1, has reached its destination within the anticipated four-month timeframe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday.

Launched on Sept. 2, the spacecraft positioned itself at Lagrange Point 1, from where it will undertake a comprehensive study of the sun, focusing on the solar corona and its influence on space weather.

The satellite covered approximately 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) over the span of four months, just a fraction of the Earth-sun distance of 150 million kilometers.