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Launch and orbit

The Proba-3 mission was launched on December 5th, 2024.

The highly elliptical orbit of Proba-3 (600 x 60530 km at 59° inclination) have the period of 19.63 hours (19 hours 38 minutes).

For science operations (about twice a week), the two spacecraft acquire flight formation about 3 hours before the apogee and keep it for 6 hours, without relying on guidance from the ground. During this observation period, the disc of the Sun as viewed from the Coronagraph Spacecraft is masked by the Occulter Spacecraft, 144 m apart, making possible the observations of the corona. Other special configurations are possible for special purposes (e.g. calibration).

For the rest of the orbit, the spacecraft are left to fly free in a configuration intended to avoid collision.

Video file
Visualization of the Proba-3 orbit in the GSE coordinate system, between December 2024 and October 2026. The movie shows the projected view of the Proba-3 orbit (light blue ellipse) around the Earth (blue circle) seen from the positive direction of the GSE Z-axis (i.e. above the ecliptic plane). The red part of the orbit corresponds to the interval of plus/minus 3 hours around the apogee, when formation flying is possible. The yellow dot shows the position of the Proba-3 spacecraft at the apogee. The revolution of Proba-3 around the Earth is counterclockwise in this view. The direction towards the Sun is shown with an arrow.