ESA’s eclipse-making Proba-3 mission, a precise formation-flying spacecraft, is set to launch on its PSLV-XL rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, on Thursday, 5 December, at 11:34 CET. The mission was originally scheduled for today but has been delayed due to a technical issue with the redundant propulsion system of the Coronagraph Spacecraft.
The anomaly is currently under investigation, and a software solution is being evaluated by the mission control team at ESA’s ESEC centre in Redu, Belgium. The launch will be covered by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and can be watched via ESA Web TV and ISRO’s YouTube channel.
Proba-3 is part of ESA’s family of experimental missions, designed to demonstrate precise formation flying in space. The spacecraft consists of two separate modules that will orbit each other, creating a solar eclipse effect by casting a controlled shadow on the Sun. This technology allows scientists to observe the faint surrounding atmosphere of the Sun, known as the corona.
The mission will also test general formation flying experiments, including rendezvous and resizing the distance between the spacecraft. Proba-3 requires an extremely elliptical orbit, extending over 60,000 km from Earth, where it will demonstrate a novel method of operating missions in space with shared instruments between multiple platforms.
Source: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Proba-3/Watch_eclipse-making_Proba-3_launch_today