Aditya-L1 mission in the first week of Sept., says Somanath

India’s mission to study the sun, Aditya-L1, will be launched in the first week of September, ISRO Chairman S. Somanath said here on Saturday.

Talking to reporters on his arrival in Thiruvananthapuram from Bengaluru after the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, Mr. Somanath said the date for the Aditya-L1 mission would be formally announced in one or two days. The satellite had been integrated with the PSLV launch vehicle at Sriharikota. The spacecraft would take 125 days to reach the Lagrangian Point L1, he said.

The assembly of the test vehicle for the Gaganyaan project was progressing at Sriharikota.

On the Chandrayaan-3 mission, Mr. Somanath said more data from the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover would be released after verification in the coming days. He termed it a ‘‘100% successful mission”.

The ISRO team led by Mr. Somanath and Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre Director V. Narayanan, who arrived here from Bengaluru by 11 p.m. Saturday, were given a reception at the Thiruvananthapuram airport.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director S. Unnikrishnan Nair, who had returned by an earlier flight, also was present at the airport.