ISRO launches PSLV carrying European satellites Proba-3 from Sriharikota
PTC News Desk: Indian space agency ISRO has launched PSLV rocket carrying European Space Agency satellites Proba-3 from Sriharikota on Thursday.
Earlier the mission was scheduled to launch on Wednesday but it was postponed due to some technical glitch in the Proba-3 spacecraft. The PSLV-C59 mission is a joint initiative between ISRO and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).
#WATCH | Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launches PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 mission from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh
PSLV-C59 vehicle is carrying the Proba-3 spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit as a Dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL)
(Visuals:… pic.twitter.com/WU4u8caPZO — ANI (@ANI) December 5, 2024
Proba-3 is a technology demonstration mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and marks ESA's first precision formation-flying mission. It involves a pair of satellites flying together in a fixed configuration, as if forming a single large rigid structure in space, to showcase innovative formation-flying and rendezvous technologies.
According to ESA, the mission will demonstrate formation flying within the context of a large-scale scientific experiment. The two satellites will create an approximately 150-metre-long solar coronagraph to study the Sun's faint corona closer to the solar rim than has ever been achieved before.
Proba-3 will function as an orbital laboratory, demonstrating acquisition, rendezvous, proximity operations, and formation flying while validating advanced metrology sensors and control algorithms. This mission aims to pave the way for innovative approaches to mission control. The two satellites will maintain a fixed 150-metre configuration in space, aligned with the Sun, enabling the Occulter Spacecraft (OSC) to block the solar disk for the Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC). This alignment will provide uninterrupted views of the Sun's faint corona for scientific study.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is India's first launch vehicle to feature liquid stages and is employed to carry satellites and other payloads into space based on ISRO's requirements. The PSLV's first successful launch took place in October 1994.
According to ISRO, PSLV-C59 involves four stages and carries a total payload mass of approximately 320 tonnes.
- PTC NEWS
