Proba-3: Flying two spacecraft is harder than one
What’s harder than flying a single satellite in Earth orbit? Flying two – right beside each other, at proximities that would normally trigger collision avoidance manoeuvres.
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05 DEC. 2024
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A pair of spacecraft were launched together today from India with the potential to change the nature of future space missions. ESA’s twin Proba-3 platforms will perform precise formation flying down to a single millimetre, as if they were one single giant spacecraft. To demonstrate their degree of control, the pair will produce artificial solar eclipses in orbit, giving prolonged views of the Sun’s ghostly surrounding atmosphere, the corona.
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Proba-3 stack on the way to orbit
The pair will remain attached together while initial commissioning takes place, overseen from mission control at the European Space Security and Education Centre, ESEC, in Redu, Belgium.
Dietmar Pilz, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality notes, “Proba-3 has been many years in the making, supported through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme fostering novel technologies for space. It is an exciting feeling to see this challenging enterprise enter orbit.”
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Proba-3 separation from PSLV-XL upper stage
The pair will remain attached together while initial commissioning takes place, overseen from mission control at the European Space Security and Education Centre, ESEC, in Redu, Belgium.
Dietmar Pilz, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality notes, “Proba-3 has been many years in the making, supported through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme fostering novel technologies for space. It is an exciting feeling to see this challenging enterprise enter orbit.”
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Proba-3 orbit
The pair will remain attached together while initial commissioning takes place, overseen from mission control at the European Space Security and Education Centre, ESEC, in Redu, Belgium.
Dietmar Pilz, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality notes, “Proba-3 has been many years in the making, supported through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme fostering novel technologies for space. It is an exciting feeling to see this challenging enterprise enter orbit.”
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Proba-3 Occulter and Coronagraph spacecraft
The pair will remain attached together while initial commissioning takes place, overseen from mission control at the European Space Security and Education Centre, ESEC, in Redu, Belgium.
Dietmar Pilz, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality notes, “Proba-3 has been many years in the making, supported through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme fostering novel technologies for space. It is an exciting feeling to see this challenging enterprise enter orbit.”
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Proba-3 Occulter eclipsing Sun for Coronagraph spacecraft
The pair will remain attached together while initial commissioning takes place, overseen from mission control at the European Space Security and Education Centre, ESEC, in Redu, Belgium.
Dietmar Pilz, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality notes, “Proba-3 has been many years in the making, supported through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme fostering novel technologies for space. It is an exciting feeling to see this challenging enterprise enter orbit.”
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Proba-3 mission control at ESEC
The pair will remain attached together while initial commissioning takes place, overseen from mission control at the European Space Security and Education Centre, ESEC, in Redu, Belgium.
Dietmar Pilz, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality notes, “Proba-3 has been many years in the making, supported through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme fostering novel technologies for space. It is an exciting feeling to see this challenging enterprise enter orbit.”
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Proba-3 infographic: Spacecraft
The pair will remain attached together while initial commissioning takes place, overseen from mission control at the European Space Security and Education Centre, ESEC, in Redu, Belgium.
Dietmar Pilz, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality notes, “Proba-3 has been many years in the making, supported through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme fostering novel technologies for space. It is an exciting feeling to see this challenging enterprise enter orbit.”
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Proba-3’s journey to see the Sun’s corona
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Eclipse-maker: How Proba-3 subtracts the Sun
Hidden in plain sight within the Sun’s glare is the ultra-hot yet ghostly faint solar corona, source of the solar wind and solar storms. The only way to see this key element of the Solar System is either through the remarkable cosmic coincidence that gives rise to total solar eclipses – the fact that the Sun is not only 400 times bigger than our Moon but also about 400 times further away, allowing it to cover the solar disc entirely – or else artificially, through Sun-obscuring telescopes.
Proba-3 Frequently Asked Questions
Editor's note: This page was last updated on 16 June 2025
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