India’s PSLV rocket will launch the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission on December 4. This groundbreaking mission involves two satellites flying in parallel formation for extended periods, the first of its kind globally, aimed at studying the Sun’s corona.

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• Proba-3 mission by European Space Agency to study solar corona using two satellites.
• Satellites to fly parallel at a 150m distance for six hours daily, maintaining position via laser technology.
• ISRO to launch satellites on Dec 4 into a highly elliptical orbit (600 x 60,530 km).
• Satellites will autonomously perform Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre, avoiding collisions without ground support.
• Coronagraph and occulter are split across the two satellites for improved instrumentation.
• Design enables study of fainter signals from distant objects with larger instruments.
• Satellites will separate, rendezvous, and repeat formation flights autonomously.
• First mission to achieve tandem orbits for long-duration formation flying.
• Demonstrates advanced space tech for parallel flight and independent satellite operation.
• Opens possibilities for future deep-space exploration with multi-satellite systems.