Satellite Programs & Technology Europe Low Earth Orbit European Space Agency Space Exploration & Science Missions

ESA loses contact with one PROBA‑3 spacecraft after anomaly forces survival mode

The European Space Agency on May 6 lost contact with one of the two PROBA‑3 satellites — part of a formation‑flying coronagraph demonstration to observe solar eclipses — after an anomaly forced the probe into survival mode. Mission teams are actively working to restore communications and determine the cause.

Discovered 2026-03-06T04:27:23.383967-08:00 | 2026-03-06T04:27:23.383967-08:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

Loss of a PROBA‑3 spacecraft directly jeopardises the mission’s formation‑flying coronagraph demonstration and its unique solar‑eclipse observations; recovery efforts are underway to preserve the technology and science objectives.
Extended contact failures have precedent and can be irrecoverable — see NASA’s prolonged MAVEN silence that left the orbiter likely lost [source:d0b93ba9-fe2c-4243-85a3-0f4688355a8b].
PROBA‑3’s close‑proximity goals sit within ESA’s broader push to prove in‑orbit demonstrators and rendezvous techniques, a context that magnifies the operational and programmatic impact of an outage [source:407c4483-04d9-4cdc-9f87-0a43533abc13] and underscores wider industry concerns about contact failures as satellite numbers grow [source:80e49397-3770-4380-a5c8-db9ba62ede3d].

Reported By

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