Landmark space mission set to create artificial solar eclipses using satellites

Two satellites in Proba-3 mission expected to be launched on Wednesday in India and will work in tandem to study sun's corona

Final preparations have begun for a landmark space mission that will use satellites flying in close formation to create artificial solar eclipses high above the Earth.

The Proba-3 mission is the European Space Agency's first attempt at precise formation flying in orbit and calls for two spacecraft to loop around the planet in an arrangement that never deviates by more than a millimetre, about the thickness of a human fingernail.