India鈥檚 Aditya-L1 spacecraft travels after it was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023. India launched its first space mission to study the sun on Saturday, less than two weeks after a successful uncrewed landing near the south polar region of the moon. AP FILE PHOTO
NEW DELHI 鈥� India鈥檚 Sun-monitoring spacecraft has crossed a landmark point on its journey to escape 鈥渢he sphere of Earth鈥檚 influence鈥�, its space agency said, days after the disappointment of its Moon rover failing to awaken.
The Aditya-L1 mission, which started its four-month journey towards the center of the solar system on September 2, carries instruments to observe the Sun鈥檚 outermost layers.
鈥淭he spacecraft has escaped the sphere of Earth鈥檚 influence,鈥� the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said in a statement late Saturday.
Aditya, named after the Hindu Sun deity, has traveled 920,000 kilometers (570,000 miles), just over half the journey鈥檚 total distance.
At that point, the gravitational forces of both astronomical bodies cancel out, allowing the mission to remain in a stable halo orbit around our nearest star.
鈥淭his is the second time in succession that ISRO could send a spacecraft outside the sphere of influence of the Earth, the first time being the Mars Orbiter Mission鈥�, the agency added.
In August, India became the first country to land a craft near the largely unexplored lunar south pole, and just the fourth nation to land on the Moon.
Rover Pragyan surveyed the vicinity of its landing site but was powered down before the start of lunar night, which lasts roughly two weeks on Earth.
India had hoped to prolong the mission by reactivating the solar-powered vehicle once daylight returned to the lunar surface, but so far has been greeted by radio silence.
鈥淚t is OK if it does not wake up because the rover has done what it was expected to do,鈥� ISRO chief S. Somanath said Wednesday.
In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to put a craft into orbit around Mars, and it is slated to launch a three-day crewed mission into Earth orbit by next year.
The United States and the European Space Agency have sent numerous probes to the centre of the solar system, beginning with NASA鈥檚 Pioneer program in the 1960s.
Japan and China have both launched their own solar observatory missions into Earth orbit.
But if successful, ISRO鈥檚 latest mission will be the first by any Asian nation to be placed in orbit around the Sun.