The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has rescheduled the launch of the European Space Agency (ESA) Proba-3 double-satellite mission, which aims to create artificial eclipses in Earth’s orbit to help study the Sun.
EASA’s Proba-3 mission, which is the first program in the world to experiment with precision formation flying of two spacecraft, was initially scheduled to take off aboard an Indian PSLV-C59 launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, on December 4, 2024, at 16:08 local time.
🚀 Liftoff Day is Here!
— ISRO (@isro) December 4, 2024
PSLV-C59, showcasing the proven expertise of ISRO, is ready to deliver ESA’s PROBA-3 satellites into orbit. This mission, powered by NSIL with ISRO’s engineering excellence, reflects the strength of international collaboration.
🌌 A proud milestone in… pic.twitter.com/KUTe5zeyIb
However, right before the launch ISRO announced on X that due to an “anomaly” detected in the PROBA-3 spacecraft PSLV-C59, the launch was postponed to December 5, 2024, at 16:12 local time.
Creating an artificial 15-meter telescope
The PROBA-3 mission consists of two small satellites: the Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) and the Occulter Spacecraft (OSC). They will be launched together in a stacked configuration and will fly near each other in a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth, reaching an altitude of 60,500 kilometers at its highest point.
The satellites will orbit the planet once every 19.7 hours for two years. They will fly in formation for six hours in each orbit, maintaining a distance of about 150 meters, with a precision of a few millimeters.
The satellites will conduct formation flying maneuvers to create a solar coronagraph: one of the spacecraft will artificially block out light from the Sun in order for the second to acquire continuous views of its ghostly corona, or surrounding atmosphere.
The goal is to create a large telescope autonomously, without any help from ground control.
According to ESA, the mission aims to study the Sun’s faint corona closer to the solar rim than has ever been achieved before. In addition to the recordings from the coronagraph, the experiment will help test the precise positioning of two spacecraft.
ESA and its private partners began working on the $210 million Proba-3 mission in 2014. This mission is the fourth in the Proba (Project for Onboard Autonomy) series created by ESA.