launch was from sriharikota on saturday after an hour and four minutes of flight time, the indian space research agencyit mission successful. this is india's first space based mission to study the sun. the aim is to help scientists understand solar activity, its effect on earth and near space weather in real time. a few thousand people gathered in the viewing gallery set up by the indian space research agency. it was near the launch site to watch the blast—off. now let's break down what's in store for the spacecraft itself. it has to orbit the earth several times before being launched to its destination. that's li. l1 is 1.5 million kilometres away from the earth. that's 932,000 miles. and according to scientists, the distance between the earth and l1 is equivalent to approximately 1% of the distance between the earth and the sun. even so, according to india's space agency, the journey will take four months. once there, that's when the spacecraft can begin to orbit the sun. now, of course, this is a huge moment of pride for india. you can see here students celebrating as they're watching the live strea

a few thousand people gathered in the viewing gallery set up by the indian space research agency.efore being launched to its destination. that's l1. l1 is 1.5 million kilometres away from the earth. that's 932,000 miles. and according to scientists, the distance between the earth and l1 is equivalent to approximately 1% of the distance between the earth and the sun. even so, according to india's space agency, the journey will take four months. once there, that's when the spacecraft can begin to orbit the sun. now, of course, this is a huge moment of pride for india. you can see here students celebrating as they're watching the live stream of the launch. and it's also only a week after india celebrated its first unmanned landing on the moon that became the world's first ever probe near the lunar south pole. and it made india only the fourth country to celebrate a soft landing on the moon. now, of course, these are big gains for india's space ambitions itself. but india's scientists also insist these will be big gains for the scientific community at large. it's a mad dash this weeke