The PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 Mission, the 61st flight of PSLV and the 26th using PSLV-XL configuration, set to carry ESA’s PROBA-3 satellites (~550kg) into a highly elliptical orbit. File.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Due to an anomaly detected in Proba-3 spacecraft, the PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 launch has been rescheduled to Thursday (December 5, 2024), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Wednesday (December 4, 2024).

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Proba-3 mission was scheduled to be launched today on ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

According to ESA, Proba-3 is the world’s first precision formation flying mission.

“A pair of satellites will fly together, maintaining a fixed configuration as if they were a single large rigid structure in space, to prove formation flying and rendezvous technologies,” states the ESA.

The mission will demonstrate formation flying in the context of a large-scale science experiment. Holding position to a precision of a single millimetre, one Proba-3 spacecraft will line up in front of the other, around 150 m away, to cast its shadow precisely onto the other.