A flat‐ended variant of a multi‐electrode electrostatic plasma probe design, previously proposed by Laframboise and Parker, is described. The probe consists of a collector, a guard, and a sleeve electrode. Besides being easier to construct, this modified probe geometry is more amenable to numerical verification of its operating properties. Such a verification is carried out by numerically following selected collisionless orbits of charged particles in the electric field of the probe. By the same means, an orbit‐limited operating regime of electrode bias combinations is also found. It is found that if the sleeve is given an attractive bias at least three times as large as that of the collector and guard, relative to space potential, then one achieves the intended probe operation, which simulates that of an orbit‐limited spherical Langmuir probe in collisionless conditions but with certain restrictions on probe operation removed or relaxed. It is concluded that experimental tests of the proposed probe configuration are desirable.