It is India’s first solar research mission in space. According to observers, India has ambitions to break the dominance of the US and China in space travel.
India has successfully launched a satellite to study the sun. More than 860,000 people watched the rocket lift off from the Indian spaceport in a live broadcast by the space agency ISRO on Saturday. Shortly thereafter, ISRO reported on X, formerly Twitter, that the Aditya-L1 probe had now reached space.
In the next four months, it will cover around 1.5 million kilometers. This keeps it far from the sun, which is around 150 million kilometers from Earth. According to observers, just shortly after the successful moon landing, India underpinned its ambitions to break the current dominance of the USA and China in space travel with Aditya-L1.
A landing on the south pole of the moon, also planned by Russia, failed shortly before the Indian success. For India, the moon landing marked the rise to a space nation.
According to Indian government circles, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to repeat India’s success in information technology in space exploration. Interior Minister Amit Shah wrote on X on Saturday that the launch of the solar probe was a “huge step” in that direction.
Aditya-L1 is India’s first solar research mission in space. Among other things, it is intended to examine the effects of solar radiation on the growing number of satellites, such as those being launched by commercial providers such as SpaceX, owned by Tesla owner Elon Musk. The Indian scientists also hope to gain insights into the effects of the sun on the development of the Earth’s climate and the origin of solar winds. This stream of charged particles can damage satellites.
© Handelsblatt GmbH – All rights reserved. Acquire usage rights?
