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Sign in to searchProba-3 Mission
The Proba-3 mission is an advanced space experiment of the European Space Agency designed to demonstrate precision formation flying in space. It is considered the world’s first mission where two independent satellites fly in extremely precise alignment to function as a single virtual spacecraft. The mission was successfully launched on 5 December 2024 from Sriharikota using the PSLV‑C59 operated by Indian Space Research Organisation under a commercial agreement with NewSpace India Limited.
The mission consists of two spacecraft—the Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) and the Occulter Spacecraft (OSC). These satellites maintain a distance of about 150 meters with millimetre-level precision while orbiting Earth in a highly elliptical orbit (about 600 km × 60,530 km) with a period of roughly 19.7 hours. By precisely aligning themselves, the occulter blocks the Sun’s bright disk, creating an artificial solar eclipse that allows the coronagraph to observe the solar corona for extended periods.
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Proba-3 mission demonstrates precision formation flying with two satellites maintaining millimetre-level alignment to observe the solar corona and solar winds.
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