Adiya-1 Spacecraft

Aditya-1 is an Indian spacecraft for study of the Sun. It was conceptualised in 2008 and was built and launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Aditya is proposed to be sent to space by 2012 to study the solar corona. This part of the Sun has temperatures of over one million degrees, with raging solar winds that reach a velocity of up to 1000 km a second. The satellite will carry as its payload an advanced solar coronagraph. It will be a small 100 kilograms (220 lb) satellite projected to cost about 50 crore (US$10 million), and likely to be placed into a near earth orbit of 600 km. The spacecraft’s mission will be to study the fundamental problems of coronal heating, and other phenomena that take place in the Earth’s magnetosphere. (wikipedia)