The launch of ISRO’s workhorse rocket PSLV, earlier scheduled today at 4.08 pm, has been postponed to tomorrow at 4.12 pm due to an “anamoly” detected in the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 satellites which the rocket was supposed to carry.
The countdown for the liftoff of PSLV was going on normally till an anomaly was detected in the Proba-3 satellites minutes before its scheduled launch today.
Earlier in the day, experts from ISRO stationed at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre confirmed to NDTV that the “countdown is progressing normally, and the weather is favourable for a nominal lift-off at 4:08 pm.”
India’s rocket port, located on Sriharikota Island along the Bay of Bengal, escaped the cyclone’s fury as the storm made landfall farther south. On several occasions, rocket launches have been postponed due to cyclonic activity, but this time conditions seemed optimal till they weren’t.
In its 61st flight, India’s workhorse rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), has been tasked by the European Space Agency (ESA) to launch a unique pair of satellites designed to simulate a total solar eclipse through precision formation flying in space.
The satellites, Proba-3, will now lift off from Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on Thursday at 4:12 pm aboard the PSLV-C59. ISRO stated that the vehicle will place the Proba-3 spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit as part of a dedicated commercial mission under New Space India Limited (NSIL), ISRO’s commercial arm.
Proba-3 is an in-orbit demonstration (IOD) mission by the ESA, aiming to showcase advanced formation-flying technologies. It consists of two spacecraft: the Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) and the Occulter Spacecraft (OSC). These will be launched together in a stacked configuration.
Weighing a combined 545 kg, the two satellites will be carried into space by the 44.5-meter-tall PSLV rocket, which weighs 320 tonnes at lift-off. Approximately 18 minutes after launch, the satellites will be deployed at an altitude of 600 km above Earth.
The Proba-3 mission involves two mini-satellites flying in close formation with the ability to precisely control their attitude and separation. This innovative configuration simulates a total solar eclipse and demonstrates cutting-edge formation-flying and rendezvous technologies. According to ISRO, Proba-3 is ESA’s-and the world’s-first precision formation-flying mission. The satellites will maintain a fixed configuration as if they were a single rigid structure in space.
This marks the second ESA satellite launch aboard an Indian rocket. The first, the Proba-1 mission, was launched in 2001 using the PSLV. Originally planned as a one-year mission, Proba-1 has exceeded expectations, remaining operational for over two decades.