ISRO successfully launches Proba-3 mission

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched the Proba-3 mission for the European Space Agency (ESA) on Thursday. The four-stage PSLV-XL rocket took off at 4:04 pm IST from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, achieving perfect stage separations on its way to orbit.
The first stage of the PSLV rocket separated about two minutes after liftoff, followed by the second stage separation at 4:08 pm. At this point, the spacecraft was exposed to space.
At 4:23 pm, ISRO announced that the Proba-3 spacecraft had been deployed in the desired orbit, marking the launch as a success. ESA’s team confirmed the deployment shortly after, with telemetry received at the mission control centre in Belgium. The mission was contracted by New Space India Limited (NSIL), ISRO’s commercial arm.
The Proba-3 mission is a twin-spacecraft mission consisting of two satellites—Occulter (200 kg) and Coronagraph (340 kg). It is designed to create artificial solar eclipses to study the Sun’s corona, the outermost layer of its atmosphere. Funded under ESA’s General Support Technology Programme, Proba-3 serves as a technology demonstration mission showcasing precise formation flying. The mission was facilitated by NSIL, ISRO’s commercial arm.
ESA highlighted the significance of the mission in advancing solar research, describing Proba-3 as one of the most sophisticated solar observation projects to date.
For ISRO, this mission builds on the success of the Aditya-L1 solar mission launched in September 2023. The collaboration with ESA underscores ISRO’s growing prominence in global solar research and its capability to execute complex satellite launches.
With Proba-3 now in orbit, scientists anticipate groundbreaking insights into the Sun’s behaviour and the dynamics of space weather, paving the way for a better understanding of solar phenomena that impact life on Earth.