The European Space Agency has launched Proba-3, a cutting-edge Sun-observing mission, using technology partly developed by a Cork-based company, aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) flagship rocket.
The launch, originally scheduled for yesterday, was delayed due to a technical snag.
The mission is intended to advance global efforts to understand the economic and technological risks of space weather.
Proba-3 will see two satellites sent into orbit to create the first man-made solar eclipse.
The eclipse will be used to study the Sun's inner corona, the outermost part of its atmosphere which is usually hidden by the bright light of its surface.
The two satellites will fly in precise formation together, with one casting a shadow over the Sun so the other can observe, the first time this has every been attempted by ESA.
The crafts will fly with 1mm precision and this will be made possible by technology developed in part at the Cork office of US sensor and semiconductor developer, Onsemi, which bought the Cork based start-up, SensL, in 2018.
Proba-3 is designed to last two years.
It lifted off aboard ISRO's PSLV-XL rocket at 10.34am Irish time. At around 10.58am, PSLV mission director M Jayakumar announced that the satellite had been injected into orbit.
For the ESA, Proba-3 strengthens its solar research capabilities, joining its Solar Orbiter in the study of the sun’s complex dynamics.
The launch also builds on ISRO's recent accomplishments, including the Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing and its own sun-studying Aditya-L1 solar observatory.
"The corona of the sun ... has been very poorly investigated. One of the things we really want to understand is... how do coronal mass ejections or solar wind originate in this area," Proba-3 Systems Engineer Esther Bastida Pertegaz said in a pre-recorded video.
The corona is a critical region for understanding solar phenomena such as coronal mass ejections and flares. These events can severely disrupt communications, navigation systems, and power grids on earth.
The mission enables observations of the sun’s inner corona for up to six hours per orbit - far surpassing the fleeting moments of natural solar eclipses that occur only around 60 times a century.
ESA has been struggling with setbacks and delays in its launch programme, with the first commercial flight of the flagship Ariane 6 heavy launcher postponed to next year and access to Russia’s Soyuz rockets severed by the breakdown in relations over Ukraine.
ESA said it opted for ISRO's PSLV-XL to deploy the spacecraft because of its cost efficiency and performance.
While ISRO advances its Gaganyaan programme to send Indian astronauts into space and plans further explorations of the Moon, Mars, and Venus, it is also positioning itself as a global commercial launch provider.
