<\/p>\n “Hearing back from the Coronagraph is amazing news, and a great relief!” Proba-3 Mission Manager Damien Galano said in a statement today<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below <\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n The Coronagraph and its partner satellite, the Occulter, launched to Earth orbit together from India in December 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n The two work together to generate solar eclipses<\/a>. As its name suggests, the Occulter blocks out the sun’s disk<\/a>, allowing the Coronagraph to study the sun’s faint outer atmosphere, or corona<\/a>, which is usually drowned out by our star’s overwhelming brightness.<\/p>\n This work requires incredibly precise formation flying: The two satellites<\/a> cruise through space about 500 feet (150 meters) apart, maintaining their positions with an accuracy of 1 millimeter. If either the Occulter or the Coronagraph goes down, the mission is effectively over.<\/p>\n \n Diagram of Europe’s two Proba-3 formation-flying satellites in action. (Image credit: ESA-F. Zonno)<\/p>\n So, last month’s events were bad news for the Proba-3 team. The Coronagraph anomaly “triggered a chain reaction that led to the progressive loss of attitude (spacecraft orientation) and prevented its expected entry into safe mode,” ESA officials said in a statement on March 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n But things are better now, as today’s update noted. ESA’s ground station in Villafranca, Spain, received a packet of data from the Coronagraph, which provided information about the satellite’s voltage and temperature, among other characteristics.<\/p>\n The satellite is stable and in a protective “safe mode” at the moment. But it’s not out of the woods; the mission team is conducting health checks to determine if it suffered any damage, ESA officials said in today’s update.<\/p>\n![\"Diagram](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/oqU7Vc578mzKEoNFAsyPmJ.jpg\")
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