Chennai: Indian space agency on Thursday said the Aditya-L1 spacecraft has taken a selfie and images of the Earth and the Moon.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Aditya-L1, which is destined for Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1), has taken a selfie and also pictures of the Earth and the Moon.

ISRO has uploaded the images on the social media platform X.

Aditya-L1 Mission:
👀Onlooker!

Aditya-L1,
destined for the Sun-Earth L1 point,
takes a selfie and
images of the Earth and the Moon.#AdityaL1 pic.twitter.com/54KxrfYSwy

— ISRO (@isro) September 7, 2023

The Aditya-L1, India’s space-based solar observatory was orbited in low earth orbit (LEO) on September 2 by an Indian rocket called Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle -XL (PSLV-XL) variant.

The spacecraft’s orbit has been raised by ISRO twice since then.

As the spacecraft travels towards Lagrange Point (L1), it will exit the earth’s gravitational Sphere of Influence (SOI).  After the exit from SOI, the cruise phase will start and subsequently the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo orbit around the L1 -- the point where the gravitational pull of two large bodies -- Sun and Earth -- will be equal and hence the spacecraft will not gravitate towards any one of the planet.

The total travel time from launch to L1 would take about four months for Aditya-L1 and the distance will be about 1.5 million km from the Earth.

(IANS)