In a major milestone for Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Indian space agency, succeeded in docking or mating two Indian satellites in space Thursday morning. This is part of the Space Docking Experiment or SpaDeX. This was the fourth attempt when Indian scientists finally hit the bull's eye.
At about 10 am ISRO announced Docking Success. A post on X said:
"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!"
With this, India has taken the first step towards joining an elite club of nations — the US, Russia and China — that boast of such technology. ISRO will need several more docking tests before claiming mastery over the technology.
The Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX), launched on December 30, saw two satellites that were launched separately unite at an orbital altitude of approximately 475km, with the final commands executed from ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (Istrac) in Bengaluru.
