In a significant boost to international space collaboration, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Proba-3 mission successfully launched aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) flagship PSLV-XL rocket on Thursday. The liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre occurred at 10:34 GMT, following a brief delay due to a technical snag.
Proba-3 is a cutting-edge, two-satellite system designed to study the sun’s corona with unprecedented detail. The mission aims to advance global understanding of space weather phenomena, which can pose substantial risks to Earth’s technological infrastructure, including communication and navigation systems.
“The corona of the sun has been very poorly investigated. One of the things we really want to understand is how coronal mass ejections or solar wind originate in this area,” explained Proba-3 Systems Engineer Esther Bastida Pertegaz in a pre-recorded statement.
The mission enables prolonged observations of the sun’s inner corona for up to six hours per orbit, far surpassing the fleeting moments captured during natural solar eclipses. These extended observations are expected to provide valuable insights into solar events like coronal mass ejections and flares, which can disrupt power grids and satellite operations on Earth.
Costing approximately 200 million euros and developed over more than a decade, Proba-3 is supported by over 40 European companies, including SENER Aerospace, Redwire Space, and Airbus Defence and Space. The mission is slated to last two years, during which it will significantly enhance ESA’s solar research capabilities alongside the Solar Orbiter mission.
Thursday’s successful launch also underscores ISRO’s growing prominence in space exploration, following recent achievements like the Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing and the Aditya-L1 solar observatory mission.
At 10:58 GMT, PSLV mission director M. Jayakumar confirmed the successful injection of Proba-3 into orbit, marking a milestone in international cooperation in space science.
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Europe's sun-studying Proba-3 mission lifts off on Indian rocket
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