Bengaluru (PTI): India’s first solar mission Aditya-L1 spacecraft completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point on Tuesday, ISRO said.

The space agency said its station-keeping manoeuvre on Tuesday ensured its seamless transition into the second halo orbit.

The Aditya-L1 mission, which is an Indian solar observatory at Lagrangian point L1, was launched on September 2, 2023 and was inserted in its targeted halo orbit on January 6, 2024.

According to ISRO, Aditya-L1 spacecraft in the halo orbit takes 178 days to complete a revolution around the L1 point.

During its travel in the halo orbit, Aditya-L1 spacecraft will be subjected to various perturbing forces that will cause it to depart from the targeted orbit, the space agency said.

"Aditya-L1 underwent two station-keeping manoeuvres on February 22 and June 7, respectively, to maintain this orbit. Today's third station-keeping manoeuvre has ensured that its travel continued in the second halo orbit path around L1,” ISRO said.

The agency explained that Aditya L1's journey around Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point involves modeling of complex dynamics.

The understanding of various perturbing forces acting on the spacecraft helped in determining the trajectory accurately and planning precise orbit manoeuvres, it added.

"With today's manoeuvre, the state-of-the-art flight dynamics software developed in-house at URSC-ISRO for the Aditya-L1 missions stands fully validated," ISRO said.

 

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Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): The KSRCTC on Saturday began implementing gender ticketing in buses operating across the state.

According to a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) circular issued on Friday, the gender ticketing system is intended to record whether a passenger is a woman, a man or a child in tickets issued on KSRTC buses from Saturday.

To facilitate the system, Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs) have been updated.

The circular stated that conductors in all KSRTC depots should record the gender category of passengers while issuing tickets through the ETMs.

Options for women, men, and children have been included in the ETMs to identify passenger categories when issuing tickets.

The printed tickets generated by the ETMs will also indicate the passenger's category, officials said.

The UDF had promised free KSRTC travel for women across the state during the Assembly election campaign.

UDF, which won 102 of 140 seats, would soon form the government after the Congress party finalises the discussion on the next Chief Minister.

The introduction of gender ticketing is being viewed as an effort to estimate the number of women travelling daily on KSRTC buses before implementing the poll promise.

Some conductors have reportedly raised concerns over the additional time required to record passenger details, especially during rush hours.