At 4:04 pm, the sky over India's rocket port at Sriharikota was lit up as the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) workhorse rocket, the PSLV, lifted off for its 61st flight.
The two satellites together weighing 545 kg were hoisted into space using the 44.5-metre-tall Indian rocket that weighs 320 tonnes at lift-off. About 18 minutes after lift-off, the two satellites were released at an altitude of 600 km above the Earth. ISRO said, "The mission has successfully achieved its launch objectives, deploying satellites into their designated orbit with precision".
"Congratulating ISRO for its 'serial' successes", India's science minister Dr Jitendra Singh who also looks after space activities for the government said, "Proba-3 is the world's first precision formation flying mission. This mission is unique in the sense that it will study the solar corona, the outermost and the hottest layer of Sun's atmosphere."
The PSLV had been tasked by the European Space Agency (ESA) to launch a very special pair of satellites that will now simulate the total solar eclipse through precision formation flying in space.
The launch was postponed by 24 hours, minutes before the lift-off yesterday as the European Space Agency's satellite had an 'anomaly'. But a day later the PSLV had an on-dot lift-off. The PSLV rocket had no issues and the 'anomaly' was detected in the passenger satellite, which was resolved by the ESA team.
ISRO said the PSLV-C59 vehicle "fully accomplished the mission" to place the Proba-3 spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit. This was a dedicated commercial mission of New Space India Limited (NSIL), ISRO's commercial arm.
The Proba-3 satellite is an in-orbit demonstration (IOD) mission of the ESA. The mission goal is to demonstrate precise formation flying.
It consists of two spacecraft, namely the Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) and the Occulter Spacecraft (OSC). They were launched together in a stacked configuration.
Speaking after the launch ISRO Chairman Dr S Somanath congratulated the PSLV team for providing the "right orbit" to the demanding mission. "This launch required a highly precise injection of the European satellites," he had told NDTV.
Once the satellites are declared operational after a few weeks, one spacecraft flying closer to the Sun will cast a precise shadow on the second satellite flying 150 metres away from it. This will create an artificial solar eclipse in space. Each orbit will give scientists a six-hour window to mimic a space-based artificial solar eclipse. The ESA has spent nearly 200 million euros in making this mission with Belgium and Spain being the lead countries.
The ESA in a statement had said "Through exquisite, millimetre-scale, formation flying, the dual satellites making up ESA's Proba-3 will accomplish what was previously a space mission impossible - cast a precisely held shadow from one platform to the other, in the process blocking out the fiery face of the Sun to observe its ghostly surrounding atmosphere on a prolonged basis."
The corona of the Sun has remained a mystery and whenever a natural total solar eclipse happens, scientists get only a few minutes to study this ultra-hot part of the Sun. The study may also help understand solar storms.
The ESA said the Proba-3 is the third small satellite technology development mission to demonstrate the technologies required for the formation flying of multiple spacecraft in the fields of space science, Earth observation and surveillance. This involves the in-orbit validation of these new formation flying techniques and technologies through a series of precision. It is like two acrobats performing in precise unison in the vacuum of space and an autonomous manner.
India's first space-based solar observatory, the Aditya L1, launched in 2023 and which cost Rs 400 crore can mimic a solar eclipse continuously using the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC).
This was the second ESA satellite to be launched on an Indian rocket. In 2001, the Proba-1 mission was also launched by the PSLV, a mission that was to last one year but lasted more than two decades. Some say the precise launch by India enormously helped ESA get this long life.
"So far the PSLV has had 12 fully commercial missions and more business is coming for India" asserted Radhakrishnan Durairaj, Chairman and Managing Director of New Space India Limited
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