PSLV lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre with India's first solar observatory mission - Aditya-L1

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 11:50 a.m. today with India's first solar observatory mission, known as Aditya-L1. The 23-hour, 40-minute countdown for the launch began on Friday by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The PSLV is launching the Aditya-L1 spacecraft into a highly eccentric earth-bound orbit at roughly 12:53 pm. Satellite separation is anticipated to occur about 63 minutes after liftoff.

One of the longest launches of ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle, the PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1, may be attributed to this mission. The 2016 PSLV-C35 mission, which was completed two hours, 15 minutes, and 33 seconds after liftoff, remains the PSLV mission with the longest duration.

The Aditya-L1 mission will be the 25th PSLV-XL type flight. Aditya-L1 will spend 16 days in earth-bound orbits after launch, during which time it will do five manoeuvres to increase its speed. Aditya-L1 will remain pointed towards the sun at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres, or roughly 1% of the distance between the earth and the sun.