CNN — India launched its first spacecraft dedicated to studying the sun, building on a month of historic successes for the country’s civil space efforts. The spacecraft, called Aditya-L1, launched from Sriharikota, an island off the Bay of Bengal, at 11:50 a.m. Saturday local time (2:20 am ET). This position “will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time,” according to the space agency. The information gleaned from Aditya-L1’s experiments will provide a clearer picture of space weather, or the term used to describe the magnetic waves rippling through our solar system. India’s first dedicated solar mission adds to the country’s status as an emerging space superpower.
