India’s solar observation mission on Saturday entered solar orbit after a four-month journey; This was the latest success of the world’s most populous country in its space exploration ambitions. The Aditya-L1 mission was launched in September and carries a suite of instruments to measure and observe the Sun’s outer layers.

Indian Minister of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said on social media that the probe had reached its final orbit to “uncover the mysteries of the Sun-Earth connection.” The United States and the European Space Agency have sent numerous probes to the center of the Solar System in the 1960s, starting with NASA’s Pioneer program. Japan and China have launched their own solar observatory missions into Earth orbit.

But the Indian Space Research Organization’s latest mission is the first mission of any Asian country to orbit the Sun. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed it as another “major milestone” in the country’s space programme.

“This is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists,” he said on social media. “We will continue to develop new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity.”

Named after the Hindu sun god, Aditya traveled 1.5 million kilometers (932,000 miles) from Earth; This is still only one hundredth of the distance between humanity’s home planet and the star at the center of our solar system. It is now at the point where the gravitational forces of both celestial bodies are balanced, allowing it to remain in a stable halo orbit around the Sun.

The orbiter, which reportedly costs $48 million, will study coronal mass ejections, a periodic event that sees large ejections of plasma and magnetic energy from the Sun’s atmosphere. These flares are so powerful they can reach Earth and potentially disrupt satellites.

The mission also aims to shed light on the dynamics of some other solar events by imaging and measuring particles in the Sun’s upper atmosphere. India has a relatively low-budget space program, but it has grown significantly in size and momentum since it first sent a probe into lunar orbit in 2008.

Last August, India became the first country to land a drone near the moon’s largely unexplored south pole, and only the fourth country to land on the moon. India became the first Asian country to launch a spacecraft into Mars orbit in 2014 and plans to launch a three-day crewed mission to Earth orbit later this year.

It also plans to send a joint mission with Japan to send another probe to the Moon by 2025 and an orbital mission to Venus in the next two years.