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New Delhi, India
India's space agency – Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) – on Thursday (Dec 5) launched the Proba 3 mission satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh
The spacecraft is being carried by the PSLV-C59 vehicle into a highly elliptical orbit as a dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).
In a post on X, ISRO said, "Liftoff Achieved! PSLV-C59 has successfully soared into the skies, marking the commencement of a global mission led by NSIL, with ISRO’s technical expertise, to deploy ESA’s groundbreaking PROBA-3 satellites."
✅ Mission Success!
The PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 Mission has successfully achieved its launch objectives, deploying ESA’s satellites into their designated orbit with precision.
? A testament to the trusted performance of PSLV, the collaboration of NSIL and ISRO, and ESA’s innovative…
— ISRO (@isro) December 5, 2024
The mission launch was scheduled for Wednesday but did not happen due to an anomaly detected in the Proba-3 spacecraft.
Proba-3: An IOD mission of the ESA
According to ISRO, the Proba-3 mission is an In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) mission of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The mission's goal is to demonstrate precise formation flying. "It consists of 2 spacecraft viz. the Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) and the Occulter Spacecraft (OSC) and it will be launched together in a stacked configuration," ISRO said.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launches PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 mission from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh
PSLV-C59 vehicle is carrying the Proba-3 spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit as a Dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL)
(Source:… pic.twitter.com/YvuZkH1r7G
— WION (@WIONews) December 5, 2024
A pair of satellites will fly together, maintaining a fixed configuration as if they were a single large rigid structure in space, to prove innovative formation flying and rendezvous technologies.
The ESA said that the mission would demonstrate formation flying in the context of a large-scale science experiment.
What will Proba-3 study?
The two satellites of the mission will together form an approximately 150-metre-long solar coronagraph to study the Sun's faint corona closer to the solar rim.
The satellites will be precisely aligned so that the Occulter spacecraft casts a shadow across the Coronagraph spacecraft, thereby enabling the visibility of the faint solar corona, WION earlier reported.
If the two are not perfectly aligned, then the bright disc of the Sun will not be hidden from the instrument and the corona will be obscured by its bright light.