Historic moment for India as ISRO docks two Indian satellites in space as part of the Space Docking Experiment or SpaDeX; is fourth nation to do so after US, Russia and China
January 16, 2025 - The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully completed the docking, or mating, process of two Indian satellites in space. The historic moment came early today, January 16, after three previous trials over a fortnight. This is part of the Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDeX, and the indigenously developed Bhartiya Docking System was used to achieve this feat.
Docking is a very complex process and ISRO attempted it cautiously today after a January 12 trial when it brought the two spacecraft to three metres within each other and then placed them back at a safe distance. Just before docking, the satellites moved closer to each other at a speed of 10 millimetres per second.
ISRO announced the success at around 10:00 am today, saying in a post on X: "India docked its name in space history! Good Morning India ISRO’s SpaDeX mission accomplishes historic docking success. Proud to witness this moment!",
It elaborated: “Spacecraft docking successfully completed! A historic moment. Let's walk through the SpaDeX docking process: Manoeuvre from 15m to 3m hold point completed. Docking initiated with precision, leading to successful spacecraft capture. Retraction completed smoothly, followed by rigidisation for stability. Docking successfully completed. India became the 4th country to achieve successful Space Docking. Congratulations to the entire team! Congratulations to India!"
Notably, India now possesses rendezvous, docking and undocking capabilities and is the fourth country to achieve this feat after the United States, Russia and China.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the scientists on this achievement. “Congratulations to our scientists @isro and the entire space fraternity for the successful demonstration of space docking of satellites. It is a significant stepping stone for India’s ambitious space missions in the years to come”, he wrote on X.
The SpaDeX mission was launched on December 30. Satellites SDX01 (Chaser) and SDX02 (Target) were lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota onboard a PSLV C60 rocket and placed into a 475-kilometre circular orbit.
With Media Inputs
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