The launcher tracker antenna in Yatharagga received a signal from Proba-3 and sent telemetry onwards to the ESA’s control centre in Belgium shortly after lift-off.
The ambitious “precision formation flying” mission will see two satellites travel together in a fixed configuration and then together form a 150-metre-long solar coronagraph to study the Sun’s faint corona.
Proba-3 blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India and consisted of the Occulter and Coronagraph spacecraft.
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Mission manager Damien Galano called the launch “picture-perfect”.
“Now the hard work really begins because to achieve Proba-3’s mission goals, the two satellites need to achieve positioning accuracy down to the thickness of the average fingernail while positioned one and a half football pitches apart,” he said.
After the blast-off, the ESA said the mission aims to “change the nature of future space missions” by performing “precise formation flying down to a single millimetre as if they were one single giant spacecraft”.
“To demonstrate their degree of control, the pair will produce artificial solar eclipses in orbit, giving prolonged views of the Sun’s ghostly surrounding atmosphere, the corona,” said the ESA.
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“Fourteen ESA Member States, including Canada, came together on this mission, set to demonstrate game-changing European technology in the areas of autonomous operations and precision manoeuvring by delivering never-before-seen science results.
“Proba-3 lifted off on a four-stage PSLV-XL rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, on Thursday, 5 December, at 11:34 CET.
“Stacked together, the two satellites separated from their upper stage about 18 minutes after launch. The pair will remain attached together while initial commissioning takes place, overseen from mission control at the European Space Security and Education Centre, ESEC, in Redu, Belgium.
“Up around the top of their orbits, the Proba-3 Occulter spacecraft will cast a precisely controlled shadow onto the Coronagraph spacecraft around 150 m away to produce solar eclipses on demand for six hours at a time.”
The Yatharagga ground station, meanwhile, is operated by the Swedish Space Corporation and is located 40 kilometres from Mingenew.
Otherwise known as the Western Australian Space Centre, it opened in 2012 and cost $8 million. It currently holds four full-motion antennas installed with capabilities to support satellites, launchers and lunar missions.
The news comes after Space Connect reported how Space Machines Company would use NewSpace India – the launch firm behind the Proba-3 mission – to blast off its next “roadside assistance in space” satellite in 2026.
It’s one of several collaborations between the Australian and Indian space sectors.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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