Satellite station in Australia receives signals from ISRO's Proba-3: European Space Agency

Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), Dec 5 (PTI) Scientists of the European Space Agency (ESA) have started receiving signals from the spacecraft of Proba-3 mission which was successfully launched by ISRO, a top ESA official said on Thursday.

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said the mission would give a 'superb boost' to space exploration.

"Thank You to ISRO for giving Proba-3 a superb boost to space! The latest member of ESA's family of in-orbit demonstration missions, Proba-3 comprises two spacecraft launched together which once safely in orbit, will separate to begin performing precise formation flying," he said in a social media post.

Earlier in the day, ISRO successfully placed the two satellites of the Proba-3 mission into a high elliptical orbit.

Noting that the satellites have reached the desired orbit levels, Aschbacher said, "Almost instantaneously after separation (of the satellites from the PSLV rocket), Yatharagga station in Australia started to receive the spacecraft's signal. Telemetry is flowing to ESA's mission control centre in Belgium! Go Proba, go!"

Mission Manager of Proba-3, Damien Galano extended his gratitude to ISRO for the successful launch, said, "Today's liftoff has been something all of us in ESA's Proba-3 team and our industrial and scientific partners have been looking forward to for a long time."

"I am grateful to ISRO for this picture-perfect ascent to orbit. Now, the hard work really begins, because to achieve Proba-3's mission goals, the two satellites need to achieve positioning accuracy down to the thickness of the average fingernail while positioned one and a half football pitches apart," he said.

Proba-3 lifted off on a PSLV-C59 rocket from this spaceport at a prefixed time of 4.04 pm today. Stacked together, the two satellites (Coronagraph and Occulter) separated from their upper stage about 18 minutes after launch, the European Space Agency said.

The pair would remain attached together while initial commissioning takes place, overseen from mission control at the European Space Security and Education Centre, in Redu, Belgium, it added.

ISRO Chairman S Somanath congratulated the scientists at the Mission Control Centre after the successful launch. "The satellites have been placed in the right orbit which is a very high elliptical orbit of almost 600 km perigee, that is the closest point to the Earth and 60,000 km at its apogee, that is the farthest point with an inclination of 59 degree," he said.

"It (The mission) has been precisely achieved in the 61st mission (of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle). So, congratulations to the entire PSLV project team as well as the Proba-3 team. We wish all the very best to Proba-3 team for their further operations and in achieving the mission goals," he added. PTI