The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch its Aditya-L1 satellite mission to study the Sun by 2020.

Revealing its plan, ISRO satellite centre director Mylswamy Annadurai said that initial works for the first Indian mission to study the Sun are continuing as planned.

"The satellite will also carry additional six payloads with improved science scope and objectives."

Intended to study the outer layers of the sun, known as corona, the Aditya-L1 mission was initially planned as a 400kg class satellite carrying one payload, visible emission line coronagraph (VELC) at a 800km low-earth orbit position.

However, considering the advantageous position of placing a satellite in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, ISRO later decided to place Aditya- L1 at the halo orbit around the L1, which is 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.   

The satellite will also carry additional six payloads with improved science scope and objectives.

ISRO is also planning to launch its second lunar exploration mission, Chandrayan II, aboard a geosynchronous launch vehicle in 2018, reported The Hindu.

ISRO is also planning to launch 70 satellites over the next four years by launching a unit every month.

Among the satellites to be launched during the period include the INSAT 3DR weather satellite, which will be launched in September; while GSAT-8 and Resourcesat 2 A will be launched in October and November respectively.