China launches Kuafu-1 satellite to unravel the mysteries of the Sun
China has launched a new observatory that will explore the mysteries of the Sun after successfully integrating its under-construction space station and approving the next phase of its lunar mission. For this the Advanced Space-Based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) was launched on a Long March-2D rocket. In Chinese mythology, Kuafu-1 is named after a giant satellite that followed the Sun.
This satellite is placed in an orbit of about 720 km from the planet. The observatory is placed above the orbit of the International Space Station. The six-month commissioning phase will begin after the satellite is placed in orbit. Later science operations will start.
The spacecraft will investigate the solar magnetic field and the causality between two major eruption events, coronal mass ejections and solar flares.
The satellite is launched with three major instruments, which include the Lyman-Alpha Solar Telescope (LST), the Full-Disk Vector Magnetograph (FMG) and the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI). The spacecraft is able to probe the Sun 24 hours a day for most of the year. Its longest daily time-out does not exceed 18 minutes while passing through Earth's shadow each day from May to August.
