'Both challenging and rewarding': Former ISRO scientist ahead of Aditya L-1 launch

With just over two hours to go for the historic launch of India's solar mission, Aditya L-1, former ISRO scientist and Padma Shri Awardee Mylswamy Annadurai said that acquiring the L-1 point will be both challenging and rewarding."It is technically very challenging to acquire the L1 point and have an orbit around that and to survive for the five years with very accurate finding requirements," Annadurai said.He added, "This is scientifically going to be rewarding because seven instruments will try to understand the dynamics and phenomena of what's happening there."With the successful launch of Aditya L-1, India will conquer both the sun and the moon.Excitement is at its peak among Indians as they wait for the historic launch of Aditya L-1 which is slated for 11:50 am on Saturday.The spacecraft will launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota from Chennai."We are very proud to be an Indian, we are very happy to be here to watch the launching. This is the first time, I have come here. We can't explain our happiness," a woman named Bama said.Aditya-L1 is the first space-based observatory class to study the Sun and is being fired using ISRO's reliable Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).The spacecraft, after traveling about 1.5 million km from the Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1 which is considered closest to the Sun.Meanwhile, people in Uttar Pradesh performed Havan to successfully launch the solar mission.The primary objectives of the mission include understanding the Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration, the initiation of Coronal Mass Ejection, and near-earth space weather and solar wind distribution.With inputs from agencies