The Proba-3 spacecraft continue to demonstrate their promising capabilities every day. A few days ago, the satellites were brought from a safe orbit of 500 meters down to 200 meters — a crucial step toward their upcoming operations.

The first attempt at establishing the 200-meter safe orbit was not as perfect as desired, so a stabilization maneuver was performed. The correction worked flawlessly, leaving both spacecraft exactly where they needed to be.

With the satellites in their optimal relative configuration, the next objective was to attempt “target pointing” — precisely orienting the spacecraft to point toward each other. For this to work, the spacecraft needed to be close enough to each other and their pointing angle with respect to the Sun had to be small enough.

Last Wednesday, during the apogee of the orbit, these conditions aligned for approximately 6 hours — a perfect window for the first-ever target pointing attempt! The process began with manual computations from the ground, determining the exact attitude the spacecraft should adopt. This commanded orientation allowed the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) on the OSC to acquire its target, the CSC. Once locked, the operators applied a 5-degree offset in the spacecraft orientation, enabling the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) to lock in as well. Below, an impressive image showing the CSC captured by the NAC located on the OSC.

And here is a video representing these WAC and NAC acquisitions seen from different angles, at 20 times real speed:

Then came the real milestone: the navigation converged, and the spacecraft were commanded to switch to autonomous mode. For the first time ever, the Proba-3 satellites were pointing at each other completely autonomously, continuously updating their navigation data in real time.

As if that weren’t exciting enough, the laser metrology system (FLLS) detected a reading. Was it a genuine laser signal, or a cosmic ray trying to take credit? The team is still investigating, and in the coming days, we will attempt to switch on the unit again and acquire a confirmed reading.

Stay tuned for more updates as we keep pushing the boundaries of formation flying with Proba-3!