New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is planning to launch its Aditya-1 satellite for the Sun in three years, but with a few changes from the original plan of the mission.

Isro chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar on Monday said that there will be a change in the scope of the mission designed to study the Sun’s corona.

“We realised that we can put the satellite in an orbit from where it can see the Sun continuously, hence increasing the observation time," said Kiran Kumar. The satellite was originally planned to be launched by 2012, but will now take place only after 2017.

Isro initially planned to put the 200-kg satellite into an 800 km orbit to coincide with the solar maxima, a period of intense activity on the Sun which comes every 11 years.

In its current plan, Isro will insert the satellite in a halo orbit around L1 Lagranian point of the Sun-Earth system to facilitate continuous viewing of the Sun without any eclipses. The rocket used to place the satellite in this required orbit is the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) XL.

The objective of Aditya mission is to help find out why solar flares and solar winds disturb the communication network and electronics on earth. Isro plans to use the data from the satellite to better protect its satellites from being damaged by hot winds and flares ejected out of the corona.

Meanwhile, here are some interesting launches that the Isro chief said are around the corner

• July: Commercial launch of three earth observation satellites for a UK-based company

• September: Technology demonstration of the winged reusable launch vehicle. The reusable launch vehicle could bring down the cost of launching satellites to a tenth of what it is today.

• September: Launch of ASTROSAT, India’s exclusive astronomical satellite with observation capabilities at multiple wavelengths.

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