As many as 23 students of Punjab government schools Friday took a flight from here to Sriharikota to attend ISRO’s Aditya L1 launch event. (Follow LIVE updates on Aditya-L1 launch here)

As India aims for the Sun on Saturday with its maiden solar expedition, ISRO’s PSLV C57 will carry the Aditya L1 mission on a 125-day voyage to the Sun. The 23.10 hour countdown for the launch commenced at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Friday, ISRO said.

Students of Punjab government schools took a flight from Chandigarh on Friday to witness the launch event. Punjab School Education minister Harjot Singh Bains said on Friday that the state government will bear all the expenses of the students visiting Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. Bains said this step was aimed at raising the interest of governemnt school students in science. Earlier, two batches of students went to Sriharikota during the launch of Chandrayaan 3 and PSLV-C56. About the solar expedition, ISRO Chairman S Somanath has said the Sun mission will take 125 days to reach the exact radius.

Aditya L1 is designed for providing remote observations of the solar corona and conduct in-situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point), which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth.