External affairs minister S Jaishankar met Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis on Monday who was on a day-long visit to India and discussed on enhancing bilateral ties.
During the meeting, Minister Cassis presented a special ‘Mission to the Sun’ Swatch, a Swiss-made watch, to EAM Jaishankar. Expressing gratitude for the gift, Jaishankar took the opportunity to highlight India’s space exploration missions, especially the Aditya-L1. “Thank him for the ‘Mission to the Sun’ Swatch gift. Through Aditya-L1 mission, India is living up to it,” Jaishankar said in an X post.
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What special in ‘Mission to the Sun’ Swatch?
• OMEGA X Swatch marks the collaboration of Swatch and OMEGA to celebrate the iconic Speedmaster Moonwatch, the first watch worn on the Moon.
• In 1963, the US government initiated the Apollo program to land humans on the Moon. The Omega chronograph emerged as the only watch to pass rigorous tests and became the official watch for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts.
• The Omega Speedmaster was worn by NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he stepped on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
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• Years later, the Omega Speedmaster remains the official watch for NASA astronauts, symbolizing its enduring legacy and reliability in space exploration.
• The collection consists of eleven models, each named after a planetary body in the solar system, featuring the innovative Bioceramic material fused with key OMEGA Speedmaster Moonwatch design elements.
• The ‘Mission to Sun’ Swatch is a bright sun-yellow model with a sun-brushed golden-coloured dial, white velcro strap, and orange accents on the chronograph’s hands, subdials, and tachymeter scale.
• All models share distinctive design elements such as bio-sourced glass construction, the “hidden” S in the centre of the crystal, circular pattern on the dial outer ring, recessed subdials, unique Bioceramic touch and markers for glow-in-the-dark.
• The non-limited collection is available for purchase at selected Swatch stores, with a limit of one watch per person per store per day.
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What is ISRO’s Aditya-L1?
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully achieved its inaugural solar mission, Aditya-L1, reaching its destination at Lagrange Point 1 on January 6.
• Launched on September 2, the spacecraft will focus on studying the sun, particularly the solar corona and its impact on space weather.
• The satellite covered approximately 1.5 million kilometres in four months, a fraction of the earth-sun distance.
• Positioned at Lagrange Point 1, the spacecraft benefits from gravitational forces, reducing fuel consumption.
• Aditya-L1, equipped with seven payloads, is set to conduct remote sensing and in-situ observations of the sun for an estimated five years.