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| ISRO reschedules Proba-3 launch after detecting 'anomaly' in satellite's propulsion system | | |  Agencies
SRIHARIKOTA, Dec 4: The ISRO on Wednesday announced rescheduling the launch of a foreign vendor satellite, Proba-3 for December 5 following the detection of an anomaly minutes before the launch.
The Bengaluru-headquartered space agency had originally planned to launch European Space Agency's (ESA) Proba-3 at 4.08 pm on Wednesday from the spaceport here.
"As per the ESA's request, the launch of PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 has been rescheduled as follows: Date: 05th December 2024 Time: 16:04" (4.04 pm), the space agency said in its latest update. The revised launch was earlier fixed at 4.12 pm on Thursday. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said the anomaly occurred in the redundant propulsion system of the Coronagraph spacecraft which was onboard the PSLVC59 mission and currently the scientists were involved in identifying the cause of the incident.
"During Proba3's pre-launch preparations at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India, an anomaly in the redundant propulsion system of the Coronagraph Spacecraft occurred. This propulsion system is part of the attitude and orbit control subsystem of the satellite and used to maintain orientation and pointing in space." Aschbacher said in a social media post.
"The anomaly is currently under detailed investigation. The use of a software solution by the mission control team at @ESA's ESEC centre at Redu, Belgium is being evaluated to allow a launch on Thursday 5 December at 11:34 CET (10:34 GMT, 16:04 local time)." he said .
Dubbed as world's first initiative of its kind, 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. The European Space Agency (ESA) said the Corona is much hotter than the Sun itself and it is where space weather originates. It is also a topic of widespread scientific and practical interest. For ISRO, this launch would provide key insights on taking up scientific experiments on the Sun after its maiden mission--Aditya-L1 which was successfully launched in September 2023. |
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