Watch Exact Moment When ISRO Proba 3 Achieved A Perfect 'Textbook Launch'

Sriharikota: ISRO ESA Proba 3 satellite launch lift off has been successfully achieved by the Indian Space Research Organisation on Thursday. The mission to study Sun's outer corona was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The Proba-3 (Project for Onboard Anatomy) consists of two satellites -- Coronagraph (310kgs) and Occulter (240kgs) -- in which two spacecraft would fly together as one, maintaining precise formation down to a single millimetre to study the Corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere. Earlier the launch was scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed for today due to some technical glitch.

The PSLVC-59 has four stages of launch, according to ISRO. The total mass with which the vehicle has lift off is around 320 tonnes. The PROBA-3 is an "In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) mission" by the European Space Agency (ESA).

Watch the exact moment when ISRO-ESA Proba 3 achieved a successful ‘textbook launch’.  

What is ISRO-ESA Proba 3 Mission?

• The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the PSLV-C59 PROBA-3 mission at 4:04 PM today (Thursday). The PSLV-C59 space vehicle is carrying two satellites into a highly elliptical orbit, to study Sun's outer corona.
• The PSLV-C59 is a joint initiative between ISRO and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).
• Proba-3 is a technology demonstration mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). Proba-3 is ESA's and 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 innovative formation flying and rendezvous technologies.
• As per the ESA, the mission will demonstrate formation flying in the context of a large-scale science experiment. The two satellites will together form an approximately 150-m long solar coronagraph to study the Sun's faint corona closer to the solar rim than has ever before been achieved.
• Besides its scientific interest, the experiment will be a perfect instrument to measure the achievement of the precise positioning of the two spacecraft. It will be enabled using a wide variety of new technologies.
• Proba-3 will function as an orbital laboratory, demonstrating acquisition, rendezvous, proximity operations and formation flying, while validating innovative metrology sensors and control algorithms, opening up novel methods of mission control.
• The two satellites will adopt a fixed configuration in space, 150m apart while lined up with the Sun so that OSC blocks out the brilliant solar disk for the CSC. This will open up continuous views of the Sun's faint corona, or surrounding atmosphere, for scientific observation.