Proba-3 is the first ESA program designed to create artificial solar eclipses in orbit.
The Spanish company GMV was responsible for the formation flight system and flight dynamics for Proba-3.
The PROBA-3 Occulter spacecraft carries a disk that blocks the Sun’s bright surface to create an artificial eclipse for the Coronagraph spacecraft.
The PROBA-3 Coronagraph and Occulter spacecraft fly in precise formation to create and observe an artificial solar eclipse in orbit.
PROBA-3 was designed to have a nominal lifetime of two years.
The European Space Agency is investigating the root cause of the PROBA-3 Coronagraph anomaly.
Over the weekend of 14 and 15 February, the PROBA-3 Coronagraph spacecraft suffered an anomaly that caused a chain reaction leading to a loss of attitude.
The PROBA-3 spacecraft were built at a cost of approximately €200 million.
Both PROBA-3 spacecraft were launched aboard an ISRO PSLV-XL rocket in December 2024.
The PROBA-3 formation flying enables observations of the Sun’s outer corona by blocking the Sun’s bright surface.
The European Space Agency is assessing whether the second, healthy PROBA-3 spacecraft could safely approach and observe the orientation of the Coronagraph spacecraft to aid recovery efforts.
PROBA-3 consists of two spacecraft named the Coronagraph and the Occulter that work in tandem.
Without the PROBA-3 Coronagraph spacecraft, there is no instrument on the mission to observe the Sun’s outer corona.
The European Space Agency lost contact with one of the two PROBA-3 spacecraft and announced the loss on 6 March.
The two PROBA-3 spacecraft were built by a consortium of 29 companies led by the Spanish engineering group Sener.
Tekever has partnered with the European Space Agency on the Hera planetary defence mission and the PROBA-3 formation-flying mission.
Every spacecraft used for ESA’s Proba-1, Proba-2, Proba-V, and Proba-3 missions has been developed and integrated at Redwire’s Belgium facility.
Proba-3 uses on-board autonomous vision systems together with optical and laser metrology to detect the partner spacecraft over distances of kilometres.
Proba-3 aims to deliver six hours of coronagraphy per orbit to fill the observational gap between standard UV telescopes and ground-based coronagraphs.
The European Space Agency released footage on December 18 confirming Proba-3 achieved autonomous formation flying with millimeter-level precision.