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The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission, launched On December 5th 2024 from India, has set a ground-breaking milestone as the first space mission to achieve precision formation flying in orbit, acting as one giant spacecraft. Comprising two spacecraft — the coronagraph and the occulter — Proba-3 successfully maintained formation at a distance of 150 metres with millimetre precision during several hours without any ground intervention – a world’s first. This achievement represents a major step forward in the evolution of autonomous multi-satellite operations.

At the end of March 2025, Proba-3 completed a first successful autonomous precision formation flight. After further fine-tuning and extensive testing, the targeted precision has now been reached.          
Thanks to the VTS tool (Visualization Tool for Space data) developed by SPACEBEL for and with CNES, this precision “space dance” was simulated on the ground months before the Proba-3 departure into Space. 
SPACEBEL’s on-board software managing and controlling all Proba-3 systems is also playing a major role in the operations and autonomy of Proba-3’s formation flying.

SPACEBEL is indeed a key contributor to Proba-3’s success as we have been responsible for developing the ground segment software, the on-board software piloting Proba-3’s pair of platforms and communicating with the payloads as well as the satellites’ simulator supporting the software testing and operation preparation.

Operating in a highly elliptical orbit at more than 50.000 km above Earth, the mission's primary objective is to create an artificial solar eclipse in space. By aligning the occulter to block the Sun’s bright disc, the coronagraph is able to observe the solar corona—the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere—for up to six continuous hours. These observations will provide critical insights into solar activity such as flares and coronal mass ejections, contributing to our understanding of space weather and its potential effects on vital infrastructure on Earth.

Beyond its scientific goals, Proba-3 is a technology demonstrator, paving the way for future missions requiring highly coordinated satellite formations, thus reducing the need for large, costly spacecraft.

Proba-3 underscores Europe’s leadership in space innovation on the one hand and the excellence of all stakeholders involved on the other hand, such as SPACEBEL and our fellow space partners in Belgium.