Europe's two-spacecraft Proba 3 mission to launch this September on India's PSLV

The European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission is due for launch in September 2024 by a PSLV launcher from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The dual-satellite mission - the Coronagraph spacecraft and the Occulter spacecraft - will demonstrate the capabilities of small satellites and formation flying technology in achieving relevant scientific goals and performing scientific measurements not possible otherwise.

The key task of the Occulter spacecraft will be to simply block the sun for the Coronagraph instrument using an occulting disk pointed away from the Sun. The Coronagraph spacecraft hosts the Coronagraph instrument pointing directly toward the Sun.

As a world first, its two satellites will maintain formation to a few millimetres and arc second precision at distances of 144 m or more for six hours at a time, forming a so-called externally occulted coronagraph. This will open up continuous views of the otherwise invisible solar corona for scientific observation.

In addition to its solar observation objectives, the Proba-3 mission incorporates a rendezvous experiment to test sensors and algorithms for rendezvous maneuvers, both cooperative and uncooperative, in an elliptical orbit. The technology holds promise for future endeavors, including potential applications in the NASA/ESA Mars Sample return mission and the de-orbiting of satellites from low-Earth orbit.

📅 Launching this September 🚀☀Our two-spacecraft #Proba3 mission will form an artificial solar eclipse in space, allowing us to see the Sun in a new light! Learn more about the mission 👇https://t.co/09mPxKBbY7

— ESA (@esa) January 2, 2024

The dual satellites are currently undergoing final integration in the premises of Redwire near Antwerp in Belgium.