In another flawless launch by the Indian Space Research Organisation’s reliable workhorse, the Polar satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 today successfully launched European Space Agency (ESA) PROBA-3 Satellites into a highly elliptical orbit. This marks the successful collaboration of New Space India Ltd (NSIL), ISRO, and ESA.
PROBA-3 is ESA’s and the world’s first precision formation-flying mission. A pair of satellites were flown 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 launch was originally planned at 14.08 hrs on Wednesday, but was delayed by a day due to an anomaly detected in the PROBA-3 spacecraft.
At 14.04 hrs today, the rocket left the First Launch Pad from the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC-SHAR), Sriharikota, and roared into the clear blue sky.
The PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 Mission, the 61st flight of PSLV and the 26th using the PSLV-XL configuration will carry ESA’s PROBA-3 satellites (~550kg) into a highly elliptical orbit. The launch reinforced PSLV’s reliability for complex orbital deliveries.
“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. A proud moment celebrating the synergy of international collaboration and India’s space achievements,” ISRO said in its social media post.
Proba-3 is an In-Orbit Demonstration mission of the ESA. The mission goal is to demonstrate the precise flying of formations. It consists of 2 spacecraft – the Coronagraph Spacecraft and the Occulter Spacecraft – and was launched together in a stacked configuration.
mission objectives
Proba-3 will function as an orbital laboratory, demonstrating acquisition, rendezvous, proximity operations and formation flying while validating innovative metrology sensors and control algorithms, opening up novel methods of mission control. The two satellites will adopt a fixed configuration in space, 150m apart, while lined up with the Sun so that the OSC blocks out the brilliant solar disk for the CSC. This will open up continuous views of the Sun’s faint corona, or surrounding atmosphere, for scientific observation, said ISRO.