After the moon, India launches rocket to study the sun
India's PSLV-C57 blasts off carrying the Aditya-L1 spacecraft from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, India, September 2, 2023. The rocket left a trail of smoke and fire as scientists clapped, a live broadcast on the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) website showed. India's space agency on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, later said the satellite was now in orbit The broadcast was watched by more than 860,000 viewers, while thousands gathered at a viewing gallery near the launch site to see the lift-off of the probe, which aims to study solar winds which can cause disturbance on earth commonly seen as auroras. Named after the Hindi word for the sun, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft took flight barely a week after India beat Russia to become the first country to land on the south pole of the moon . While Russia had a more powerful rocket, India's Chandrayaan-3 out-endured the Luna-25 to execute a textbook landing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi i...