Will Proba-3 phone home? ESA’s eclipse-making spacecraft pair hits a serious anomaly

Space.com reports that ESA lost contact with the Coronagraph spacecraft in the two-satellite Proba-3 mission after an anomaly in mid-February caused it to lose orientation. Proba-3 launched in December 2024 and was designed to fly two spacecraft about 150 meters apart with millimeter-level precision so one could block the sun and let the other image the corona, effectively creating an artificial solar eclipse in space. That makes the loss of attitude control a mission-level problem rather than a minor glitch.

Proba-3 depends on extremely precise formation flying, so losing one spacecraft's orientation threatens the whole mission concept.

For now the story is about recovery. ESA teams are still trying to regain stable control, and the next meaningful update will be whether the Coronagraph can phone home, reestablish orientation, and return to formation operations with its partner spacecraft.