India achieves ‘historic’ space docking mission
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India is the fourth country – after Russia, the US and China – to achieve the feat.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BENGALURU – India docked two satellites in space on Jan 16, a key milestone for the country’s dreams of a space station and manned Moon mission, said its space agency.
The satellites, weighing 220kg each, blasted off in December 2024 on a single rocket from India’s Sriharikota launch site. They later separated.
On Jan 16, the two satellites were manoeuvred back together in a “precision” process, resulting in a “successful spacecraft capture”, said the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), calling it a “historic moment”.
India became the fourth country to achieve the feat – dubbed SpaDeX, or Space Docking Experiment – after Russia, the US and China.
The aim of the mission is to “develop and demonstrate the technology needed for rendezvous, docking and undocking of two small spacecraft”, Isro said.
Two earlier docking attempts were postponed due to technical issues.
Isro said the technology is “essential” for India’s Moon mission, and comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans in 2024 to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2040.
The world’s most populous nation has flexed its spacefaring ambitions in the last decade, with its space programme growing considerably and matching the achievements of established powers at a much cheaper price tag.
In August 2023, it became just the fourth nation to land an unmanned craft on the Moon. AFP
