Proba-3’s Coronagraph is alive!
The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully reestablished communications with the Coronagraph spacecraft of its Proba‑3 precision formation flying mission after a prolonged period without contact, ground controllers confirmed March 27, 2026. Contact was regained through ESA’s Villafranca tracking station in Spain, with telemetry indicating the satellite is in a stable safe mode following an anomaly that caused it to lose attitude control and cease routine transmissions in mid‑February. The link restoration enables engineers to begin detailed system checks and plan recovery steps for resumed mission operations.
Proba‑3 comprises two small satellites, the Coronagraph and the Occulter, which are designed to fly in close formation with separations on the order of 150 metres to simulate an artificial solar eclipse for continuous observation of the Sun’s corona. The mission was launched in December 2024 and operates in a highly elliptical Earth orbit to enable extended views of the solar atmosphere. During the loss of contact period, the Coronagraph spacecraft entered an uncontrolled spin that caused its radio and power systems to shut down, prompting ESA to rely on optical and radar tracking to estimate its attitude and orbital state. Renewed communications confirm that its solar arrays are generating power and that internal systems remain responsive, allowing ground teams to assess the extent of any damage and chart a path back to full formation operations.
Restoration of telemetry is a key milestone for the Proba‑3 mission, which aims to provide scientific data on solar coronal dynamics and demonstrate technologies critical to distributed spacecraft coordination. Precision formation flying is central to future space observatories and missions where multiple spacecraft must maintain tight relative positioning for interferometry, synthetic apertures or phased sensing. With contact reestablished, ESA engineers will work toward diagnosing the root cause of the anomaly and executing recovery procedures that may enable a return to formation flying experiments that support both scientific research and advanced spacecraft navigation techniques.
