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India’s solar probe has passed a milestone in its journey to escape the “Earth’s sphere of influence,” the country’s space agency announced, days after the moon probe’s disappointment in failing to wake up. was.
of Aditya-L1 The mission will begin a four-month journey to the center of the solar system on September 2, carrying instruments to observe the outermost layers of the sun.
“The spacecraft has escaped from Earth’s sphere of influence,” the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said in a statement late Saturday.
Aditya, named after the Hindu sun god, traveled 920,000 kilometers (570,000 miles), just over half of his total distance.
At that point, the gravity of both objects will cancel out, allowing the mission to remain in a stable halo orbit around our nearest star.
“This is the second consecutive time after the Mars rover mission that ISRO has been able to send a probe outside the Earth’s sphere of influence,” the agency added.
In August, India became the first country to land a probe near the moon’s largely unexplored south pole, and the fourth country to land on the moon’s surface.
The Pragyan spacecraft surveyed the area near the landing site, but lost power before the start of the lunar night, which lasts about two weeks on Earth.
India had hoped to extend the mission by restarting the solar-powered vehicle once sunlight returns to the moon’s surface, but has so far been met with radio silence.
“The rover did what was expected of it, so it’s okay if it doesn’t wake up,” ISRO Director General S. Somanath said on Wednesday.
India became the first Asian country to put a spacecraft into Mars orbit in 2014, and plans to begin three-day manned flights in Earth orbit by next year.
The United States and the European Space Agency have sent numerous probes to the center of the solar system, starting with NASA’s Pioneer mission in the 1960s.
Japan and China have both launched their own solar observation missions into Earth orbit.
However, if successful, ISRO’s latest mission will become the first Asian country to enter orbit around the sun.