The Swedish Space Corp.'s PRISMA satellites, named Tango and Mango, successfully separated from one another earlier today. The satellites were launched on June 14th aboard a Dnepr launch vehicle from Yasny, Russia (see SatNews story at http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?number=1938607700. Both satellites are part of the PRISMA project, which was established in early 2005 when SSC formulated a mission concept that consisted of two satellites and a series of experiments in order to test formation flying and rendezvous technology in a real space mission. The formation flying and rendezvous technology was selected because it represents techniques which are crucial in any upcoming multi-satellite mission. Formation Flying, the discipline to maneuver several spacecraft as one entity with a high level of autonomy, has several promising applications, such as building large antennas and telescopes using interferometer techniques.
![](http://www.satnews.com/images_upload/539323536/MangoTango.jpg)
Tango (top) and Mango (bottom) are mated into their launch configuration in May of this year. Photo is courtesy of SSC.
Mango is a 331 pound satellite that is about the size of a kitchen stove and Tango weighs in at 88 pounds with the dimensions of a microwave. To demo Formation Flying, the satellites will approach one another from extended distances, relying upon navigation instruments to calculate positioning — in some of the spatial exercises, they will be within three feet of one another. Various payloads from European suppliers are included in this PRISMA mission, including GPS from Germany, vision-based navigation sensor from Denmark, an RF instrument from France, and autonomous rendezvous technology from Sweden.