On the week of 21 October, the Proba-3 team gathered at ESA’s ESEC European Space Security and Education Centre, in Redu, Belgium, for their first 'Launch and Early Operations Phase' training.

ESEC is where the mission control for Proba-3 will take place, and this training consisted in reproducing the experience of launch and subsequent initial operations to be performed on the combined spacecraft.

Spacecraft operators, system engineers and support experts took their places and executed their tasks as if it were the real launch. Only that in this case, the mission’s Software Validation Facility simulator was used to emulate the satellites’ behaviour. The team performed two simulations: a nominal one and another one including contingency cases, to be as prepared as possible for liftoff and all that follows.