Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), December 5
In a first-of-its-kind initiative involving precision-flight, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Thursday successfully launched the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission aboard a PSLV-C59 rocket. This is a solar experiment of the European Space Agency (ESA).
ISRO Chairman S Somnath said that ISRO placed the two satellites in ‘right orbit’ about 18 minutes after launch. Notably, the Proba-3 (Project for Onboard Autonomy) mission consists of two satellites and two spacecraft are placed inside these satellites. These spacecraft will fly together in unison and study the Sun’s outer atmosphere while maintaining formation accuracy of up to a millimeter.
ISRO’s commercial arm, NewSpace India Ltd, was successful in securing an order from ESA for the launch, which was a technology demonstration mission. The objective of the mission is to demonstrate the precise flying formation and both the spacecraft carried inside the satellites – Coronagraph (310 kg) and Occultor (240 kg) will be launched together in a stacked formation after reaching the desired orbit level.
The 44.5 meter tall PSLV-C59 rocket was fired on its 61st flight at 4.04 pm local time at the end of the revised lift count. After touching down in Amber after an 18-minute flight, the rocket successfully separated the two satellites from itself into the desired orbit, and they will then be placed in the desired orbit by ESA scientists based in Belgium. -News-Patiala