The European Space Agency on Thursday launched Proba-3 satellites aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation's flagship rocket.

The mission aims to catch a rare glimpse of the Sun's atmosphere by imitating a solar eclipse using two satellites flying with millimeter precision.

"The spacecraft has been placed in the right orbit," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S. Somanath said.

The ISRO launched the mission with the European Space Agency's Proba-3 satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the island of Sriharikota, India.

The launch was for the European Space Agency's "Project for On-Board Autonomy 3" (Proba-3) mission, part of a series of "in-orbit missions to test out new technologies."

The lift-off was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was delayed because of a technical issue.

What is the mission and how does it work?

At a cost of some €200 million euros ($211 million), the mission creates artificial total solar eclipses by putting two satellites 150 meters (500 feet) apart from each other. 

The shadow from one satellite allows the other to observe solar wonders while blocking out the light from the Sun itself.

"For six hours at a time, it will be able to see the Sun's faint atmosphere, the corona, in the hard-to-observe region between the Sun's edge and 1.4 million kilometers from its surface," the European Space Agency said ahead of Thursday's launch.

The project will help scientists answer key questions, including why the corona is so much hotter than the Sun itself. It is also hoped the mission will uncover why the Sun's energy output evolves over time.

India and space

India is known for running low-budget space operations. Experts say this is made possible by streamlining existing technologies and employing a vast pool of engineers who are not paid as much as their global counterparts. 

In October 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he wants to set up a space station by 2035, and send a man to the moon by 2040.

jsi/rc (Reuters, AFP)