BBC News:
India is set to launch its first observation mission to the Sun, just days after the country made history by becoming the first to land near the Moon’s south pole.
Aditya-L1 is due to blast off from the launch pad at Sriharikota on Saturday at 11:50 India time (06:20GMT).
It will be located at a distance of 1.5 million km (93 million miles) from the Earth – 1% of the Earth-Sun distance.
India’s space agency says it will take four months to travel the distance.
India’s first space-based mission to study the solar system’s biggest object is named after Surya – the Hindu god of Sun who is also known as Aditya.
And L1 stands for Lagrange point 1 – the exact place between Sun and Earth where the Indian spacecraft will be placed.
According to the European Space Agency, a Lagrange point is a spot where the gravitational forces of two large objects – such as the Sun and the Earth – cancel each other out, allowing a spacecraft to “hover”.
Once Aditya-L1 reaches this “parking spot”, it would be able to orbit the Sun at the same rate as the Earth. This also means the satellite will require very little fuel to operate.
