The space flight of the Indian Aditya-L1 solar station is moving to its final stage, where it will reach the L1 (Lagrange) point, with the aim of observing the sun and its radiation, starting next January 7.
This was stated by Shrihandra Panicker Somnakh, head of the Indian Space Agency.
He told the Press Trust of India, saying: “Aditya-L1 is on its way to its goal, and has almost reached its final stage, and final preparations are now being made for it to enter the L1 (Lagrange) point. It may carry out some maneuvers before it reaches the region on January 7.”
It is noteworthy that the first Indian station to study the sun was launched into Earth’s orbit on September 2, and after 3 weeks, the station moved to the L1 point, which is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Its journey should take 125 days, and the station has begun collecting information about the solar wind.
It is noteworthy that the station can remain fixed at the L1 point relative to the Earth and the sun without anything preventing it from monitoring the sun and recording its radiation.
Apophis may "shoot down" a satellite
Nikolai Zheleznov, senior researcher at the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, assumes that the asteroid Apophis may “drop” a satellite.
In an interview with the Russian Novosti News Agency, the scientist indicated that the asteroid Apophis, which will approach Earth in 2029, “will not touch” the orbit of geostationary satellites, but there is still a small possibility that it will “drop” one of the satellites.
He says: “Most likely, it will fly close to the Earth and will not collide with anything. Space is big, and the satellites are small. But we must understand that the satellites are also flying over the equator, which still has a large orbital inclination. So theoretically there remains a small possibility.” It is unlikely that he might “shoot down” a satellite, although preliminary calculations showed that Apophis would fly somewhat farther than the geostationary satellites.”
According to him, if the asteroid Apophis “touches” the orbit of the satellites, it will only harm one of them, meaning it will not have noticeable consequences on Earth.
It should be noted that according to the latest calculations, the asteroid Apophis, which was discovered in 2004, should fly at a distance of 32 thousand kilometers from Earth on April 13, 2029. Geostationary satellites fly at approximately this distance from its surface.