> Proba-3, works just like a real solar eclipse. One spacecraft, which is roughly circular when viewed from the front, orbits closer to the sun, and its job is to block the bright parts of the sun, acting as the moon would in a real eclipse. It casts a shadow on a second probe that has a camera capable of photographing the resulting artificial eclipse.

> Having two separate spacecraft flying independently but in such a way that one casts a shadow on the other is a challenging task. But future missions depend on scientists figuring out how to make this precision choreography technology work, and so Proba-3 is a test.

Oh wow, they've potentially rescued this (very cool!) mission for both probes

It says the spacecraft was tumbling, but implies that due to regaining solar power it has achieved a stable position. I'm curious about the missing steps there...

I'm sure there is an engineering or physics reason, but why can't the occulter be an attached, smaller-diameter disc?

I'm glad that this site at least left ~10% of the screen on my phone to read the article, next to all banners and newsletter ads. It's not 5%, great!

can someone tell me the reason how that happen? it's not clear to me from the article, i mean the chain of reacyion part

The European Space Agency, not 'Europe'. Just as annoying as calling the EU Europe, and calling both Europe despite different membership is just confusing.

Am I the only one who cannot access this article?

I get: 400 Bad Request

Your request has been blocked by our server's security policies. What to do: If you believe this is an error, please contact our support team.

Now its time to reconnect with their Allies. THe west is waiting for EU