ISRO reschedules Proba-3 launch

Sriharikota : The ISRO on Wednesday announced rescheduling the launch of a foreign vendor satellite, Proba-3 for December 5 following the detection of an anomaly minutes before the launch.

The Bengaluru-headquartered space agency had originally planned to launch European Space Agency's (ESA) Proba-3 at 4.08 pm on Wednesday from the spaceport here.

"As per the ESA's request, the launch of PSLV-C59/PROBA-3 has been rescheduled as follows: Date: 05th December 2024 Time: 16:04" (4.04 pm), the space agency said in its latest update. The revised launch was earlier fixed at 4.12 pm on Thursday.

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said the anomaly occurred in the redundant propulsion system of the Coronagraph spacecraft which was onboard the PSLVC59 mission and currently the scientists were involved in identifying the cause of the incident.

"During Proba3's pre-launch preparations at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India, an anomaly in the redundant propulsion system of the Coronagraph Spacecraft occurred.

This propulsion system is part of the attitude and orbit control subsystem of the satellite and used to maintain orientation and pointing in space." Aschbacher said in a social media post.