“In the first week of December, a PSLV rocket from Sriharikota will launch the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission,” Singh stated during the Indian Space Conclave, which was hosted by the Indian Space Association.
It is anticipated that the mission will be launched on December 4.
The PSLV-XL launcher will launch the two Proba-3 spacecraft together, putting them in a highly elliptical orbit that will rise to 60,000 kilometers from Earth before descending to just 600 kilometers.
Because the two spacecraft will fly in active formation for six hours at a time around their maximum altitude, where Earth’s gravitational pull will be lessened and less propellant will be needed to adjust their positions, this high orbit is necessary.
Previously only visible for a few seconds during solar eclipses viewed from Earth, Proba-3’s two satellites will allow for longer views of the Sun’s faint surrounding atmosphere, or corona.
They must fly autonomously in formation to a single millimeter, or roughly the thickness of an average fingernail, in order to accomplish this, since the shadow cast between the spacecraft must stay in a precise position.
Since the initial Proba-1 Earth-observing mission in 2001, this is the first time an ESA mission has been launched from India.
