Proba-3 infographic: Orbit and ground control

Proba-3’s two spacecraft are flying together on a highly elliptical or elongated nearly 20-hour orbit that extends from a low point of just 600 km up to 60 000 km away. It will perform its formation flying for up to six hours at a time around the top of this orbit.

Proba-3 is controlled from ESA’s European Space Security and Education Centre, at Redu in Belgium while its ASPIICS instrument is overseen from the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels. Telemetry is conveyed via a global network of ground stations via ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.