India's Aditya-L1 Mission: Exploring the Sun's Secrets

India is set to launch its first space-based solar observatory mission, Aditya-L1, to study the sun. The spacecraft will be launched on September 1 and will take approximately 109 days to reach a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1), which is between the sun and Earth. The mission aims to better understand various aspects of the sun, such as coronal heating, space weather, and the physics of the solar corona. Aditya-L1 was originally conceptualized in 2008 and has since been expanded to become a full-fledged observatory. The Indian government allocated around $46 million for the mission in 2019.