Aditya L-1 launch: How Europe is assisting ISRO's solar mission
European Space Agency (ESA) is lending a crucial hand in two significant ways: by offering deep space communication services and aiding ISRO in validating critical new flight dynamics software. Communication is an essential part of every space mission.
Without ground station support, it is impossible to get any science data from a spacecraft, to know how it is doing, to know if it is safe or even to know where it is, ESA said.
ET's Aditiya-L1 mission: Watch all the developments here
«ESA's global network of deep space tracking stations and use of internationally recognised technical standards allows us to help our partners track, command, and receive data from their spacecraft almost anywhere in the solar system,» said Ramesh Chellathurai, ESA Service Manager and ESA Cross-Support Liaison Officer for ISRO.
«For the Aditya-L1 mission, we are providing support from all three of our 35-metre deep space antennas in Australia, Spain, and Argentina, as well as support from our Kourou station in French Guiana and coordinated support from goon hilly Earth Station in the UK,» Chellathurai said in a statement.
ESA said it is also the main provider of ground station services for Aditya-L1. ESA stations are supporting the mission from beginning to end, the space agency said.
The support ranges from the critical 'Launch and Early Orbit Phase', throughout the journey to L1, and to send commands to and receive science data from Aditya-L1 for multiple hours per day over the next two years of routine operations, it said.
ISRO on Saturday launched the country's ambitious Solar mission, Aditya L1 eyeing history again after its successful lunar expedition, Chandrayan 3 on August 23.
The spacecraft, after travelling about 1.5 million km from
