ISRO's PSLV C59 Launches Proba-3 Mission To Study The Sun's Outer Layer

The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched its PSLV-C59 rocket carrier from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh at 4:04 p.m. on Thursday. 

The launch was facilitated by NewSpace India Ltd., ISRO's commercial arm. 

The Proba-3 satellite, a European Space Agency mission, will be placed in a highly elliptical orbit spanning over 60,000 km from Earth.

The Bengaluru-based ISRO is utilising its reliable workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, for the mission.

The mission was postponed mere minutes before lift-off due to a request from the ESA regarding an anomaly found in the satellite’s propulsion system.

The mission consists of two spacecraft:

• The ‘Occulter,’ which is designed to block the sun’s light to create an artificial solar eclipse. 

• While the ‘Coronagraph’ will use the eclipse to capture images of the sun's corona in high detail.

This setup will facilitate researchers and scientists to observe the corona constantly for six hours during each 19-hour orbit; this will open new possibilities to unearth information about the Sun's outer layers, atmosphere, and space weather.

Such a level of solar monitoring has only been achievable for short durations during solar eclipses.

Jitendra Singh, the minister of science and technology and minister of earth sciences congratulated ISRO on social media platform 'X' (formerly known as Twitter).

"Kudos Team #ISRO for the successful launch of PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 Mission. With the personal intervention & patronage provided by PM @narendramodi, Team @isro is able to carry one success after the other in a serial manner," Singh said.

ISRO’s PSLV-XL was selected for its proven ability to deliver payloads with precision and for its cost efficiency, aligning with the tight budget of this experimental mission.

The PSLV will be on its 61st flight and is the 26th of the XL variant. After approximately 18 minutes of travel, it is expected to deploy the 550 kg Proba-3 satellites.

The Occulter spacecraft has a weight of 240 kg, while the Coronagraph spacecraft weighs approximately 310 kg.

The Proba-3 mission comes after the launch of ISRO's Proba-1 and Proba-2 Earth observation satellites in 2001 and 2009, respectively.