Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Two ESA satellites with Swiss technology launched

Two satellites of ESA's Proba-3 mission successfully launched
Two satellites of ESA's Proba-3 mission successfully launched Keystone-SDA

Two satellites on the European Space Agency's (ESA) Proba-3 mission have been successfully launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. Swiss technology is on board.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Proba-3 is an ESA mission inaugurating a new approach to solar observation using formation flying. Initially scheduled for Wednesday morning, the launch was postponed until Thursday.

The project, comprising two satellites flying with millimetric precision, is designed to reproduce an artificial solar eclipse, enabling in-depth study of the Sun’s corona.

The satellites were launched using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This vehicle has the power to send the 550kg weight of the two satellites into an elliptical orbit at a distance of between 600 and 60,000 kilometres from the Earth.

The satellites will align themselves with the Sun some 150 metres apart, casting a shadow from one satellite to the other, creating long-lasting artificial solar eclipses to reveal the Sun’s faint outer atmosphere, without being blinded by its brightness.

+ Switzerland to host European space technology centre

Swiss technology

A measuring instrument developed and built in Switzerland is also on board. Called “Dara” (Digital Absolute Radiometer), it is mounted on the satellite that will be closest to the sun. A team from the Davos Physical Meteorological Observatory has been working on this instrument for about ten years.

Dara, which weighs around 3kg, measures the intensity of solar radiation, i.e. the exact amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth’s atmosphere. It should thus contribute to providing a series of continuous measurements of solar radiation.

Fourteen countries are participating in this mission.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

Station crowd

More

Cohesion in Switzerland perceived as weak

This content was published on Two-thirds of Swiss people feel that cohesion in the country is “rather weak”, according to a study. Some 83% of respondents even felt that the sense of community was declining.

Read more: Cohesion in Switzerland perceived as weak
Solothurn voters reject minimum wage of 23 francs per hour

More

Solothurn voters reject minimum wage of CHF23 per hour

This content was published on Employees in the Swiss canton of Solothurn will not receive a minimum wage of CHF23 ($25.30) per hour. Voters have clearly rejected a left-wing popular initiative for a minimum wage.

Read more: Solothurn voters reject minimum wage of CHF23 per hour
Young people in Lucerne still only vote at the age of 18

More

Voting age in Lucerne to remain at 18

This content was published on Voters rejected the constitutional initiative on lowering the voting age to 16 on Sunday with 79.1% of votes against.

Read more: Voting age in Lucerne to remain at 18

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR