December 5, 11:34 CET: Successful Proba-3 launch

“Signal received.” After a smooth launch that was postponed by one day, operators and scientists waited to receive a first sign of life from the Proba-3 satellites.

The crucial beep

This was the confirmation that the separation of the stacked satellites from the launcher was successful and that the satellites were in the expected position.

What happens after launch?

The two Proba-3 satellites will travel to their space orbit stacked together. The conjoined satellites then need to come to life. Their respective solar panels will be oriented to the Sun to acquire sufficient power to wake up the onboard systems. Only once their joint commissioning is complete, the spacecraft will be separated and their individual commissioning will begin in a relatively safe orbit with respect to each other. Next is the first flight in precise formation which will finally result in scientific operations: ASPIICS will make sustained observations of the Sun’s otherwise invisible corona during an artificial total solar eclipse, created by the two satellites.

We expect the first images in March 2025.