Proba-3 stack on the way to orbit

Artist's view of Proba-3 on an ISRO PSLV-XL launch vehicle. 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 a ‘large rigid structure’ in space to prove formation flying technologies and rendezvous experiments. The mission will demonstrate formation flying in the context of a large-scale science experiment. The two satellites will together form a 144-m long solar coronagraph to study the Sun’s faint corona closer to the solar rim than has ever before been achieved. Beside 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.