Proba-3 is ESA’s precision formation flying mission, aligning two satellites in orbit to open up a prolonged view of the Sun’s normally invisible solar corona. The pair will be placed in a highly elliptical 60 000 km altitude orbit. They will be commissioned together before separating to begin their formation flying. Through exquisite, millimetre-scale, formation flying based on a suite of advanced positioning technologies, the dual satellites will accomplish what was previously a space mission impossible: cast a precisely held shadow from one platform to the other, in the process blocking out the fiery Sun to observe its ghostly surrounding atmosphere for a sustained period of time.

Access the Proba-3 mission animations.