India launches European Proba-3 space mission

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday successfully launched Proba-3, a European Space Agency (ESA) mission, according to the agency.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle carried double-satellites of Proba-3 blasted from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Southern India at 4.04 p.m. local time (1034GMT).

“Mission Success! The PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 Mission has successfully achieved its launch objectives, deploying ESA’s satellites into their designated orbit with precision,” ISRO wrote on X.

The ESA said the double-satellite “is the most ambitious member yet of our Proba family of experimental missions and will help uncover the mysteries of the Sun's corona.”

Proba-3 is an in-orbit demonstration mission to demonstrate precise formation flying, according to the Indian space agency.

“It consists of 2 spacecraft viz. the Coronagraph Spacecraft and the occulter Spacecraft and it will be launched together in a stacked configuration,” it said.

Proba-3 is a technology demonstration mission of the European Space Agency and the world’s first precision formation-flying mission, said the space agency.

“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,” it added.

The launch comes one day after a scheduled launch was scrapped Wednesday due to an “anomaly detected” in the PROBA-3 spacecraft, said the Indian space agency.