A European mission that will use two satellites to create artificial eclipses in Earth orbit launched early Thursday morning (Dec. 5) after a 24-hour delay. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Proba-3 ...

For the first time, two spacecraft in orbit were aligned in formation with millimeter precision and maintained their relative position for several hours without any control from the ground. The ...

Generally speaking, space missions are being performed with lone spacecraft heading out into the void to achieve the desired goal of their makers. Sure, these machines might release other, smaller ...

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has helped to establish that femtosecond comb lasers can provide accurate measurement of absolute distance in formation flying space missions. NPL, along with ...

A pair of spacecraft just launched to create hundreds of artificial solar eclipses in orbit. The European Space Agency mission, called Proba-3, will allow scientists “to see an eclipse on demand,” as ...

The two Proba-3 spacecraft will build on the historic first to simulate and study a total solar eclipse. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it ...