India launches sun probe after moon landing success

Aditya-L1 to travel about 1.5m kilometers to observe solar activity

20230901 india sun

After successfully reaching the moon, India has turned its sights on the sun, which it aims to study from a vantage point in space known as L1. (ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI team handout via Reuters)

KIRAN SHARMA, Nikkei staff writer

NEW DELHI -- Just over a week after it became the first nation to soft-land a spacecraft near the moon's south pole, India on Saturday launched another ambitious mission, this time to study the sun.

The Indian Space Research Organisation's Aditya-L1 -- Aditya means the sun in Sanskrit -- lifted off around noon local time from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, in southern India.

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