N° 65–2024: Media invitation: Proba-3 pre-launch media briefings

Journalists are invited to learn more about the Proba-3 mission by joining a pre-launch media briefing in English with additional question and answer sessions in French, German and Spanish. All events will be held online and take place on 28 November. 

Proba-3 is an ESA technology demonstration mission funded via the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) and 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 formation flying and rendezvous technologies.   

The mission will demonstrate formation flying in the context of a large-scale science experiment. Holding position to a precision of a single millimetre, one Proba-3 spacecraft will line up in front of the other, around 150 m away, to cast its shadow precisely onto the other. The shade provided by the first spacecraft will cover the fiery face of the Sun so that its faint surrounding ‘coronal’ atmosphere becomes visible. The enigmatic corona – much hotter than the Sun itself – is where space weather originates, a topic of widespread scientific and practical interest.  

On Earth, scientists must travel the world to position themselves for a brief glimpse of the Sun’s corona lasting just a few minutes at a time during total solar eclipses. However, the new cutting-edge technologies applied to Proba-3 mean that the mission will be able to create ‘solar eclipses on demand.’    

Proba-3 instruments will peer closer to the solar rim than was previously possible in space, for up to six hours at a time during each approximately 19-hour orbit around Earth.

Media can attend online pre-launch media briefings detailed below. Please note that journalists wishing to attend several of the events mentioned below should register for each activity separately to ensure that they receive the right link/information.  

Proba-3 pre-launch online question and answer session in French: 

Date: 28 November at 10:00 – 11:00 CEST 

Participants:  

• Damien Galano, Proba Project Manager, ESA
• Frank Preud'homme, Sales and Business Development Manager, Redwire
• Raphael Rougeot, System engineer, ESA 
• Marcus de Deus Silva, Spacecraft Operations Manager, ESA  

Proba-3 pre-launch online media briefing in English: 

Date: 28 November at 11:00 – 12:00 CEST 

Participants: 

• Dietmar Pilz, Director of Technology, ESA
• Damien Galano, Proba Project Manager, ESA
• Joe Zender, Mission Scientist, ESA
• Diego Rodríguez, Space Director, Sener  

Proba-3 pre-launch online question and answer session in Spanish: 

Date: 28 November at 13:00 – 13:45 

Participants:  

• Yann Joseph Scoarnec Proba-3 Project Manager at Sener 
• Esther Bastida Pertegaz - System Engineer 
• Anik De Groot – Solar Orbiter Project Manager 

Proba-3 pre-launch online question and answer session in German: 

Date: 28th November at 15:00 – 16:00 CEST 

Participants:  

• Dietmar Pilz - Director of Technology, ESA 
• Joe Zender- Mission Scientist, ESA 
• Eike Kircher- Head of Technology Programmes, ESA 
• Lars Weinhold - Proba-3 AIV Manager, Redwire 

Registration:

Please express interest for any of the above events by Wednesday 27 November at 09:00 CEST by selecting and completing the relevant form at https://blogs.esa.int/forms/ninja-forms/4oqw8   

The English media briefing will be recorded and available on our website – European Space Agency 

Further information:

More information about Proba-3 - http://www.esa.int/proba3  

Proba-3 media kit - https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/technology/esa-proba3_media_kit.pdf 

Media contacts

For more information, please contact: ESA Newsroom and Media Relations - media@esa.int

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About the European Space Agency

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