[🇮🇳] ISRO's SpaDeX Mission Successful, 2 Indian Satellites Dock In Space

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India succeeds in historic space docking mission: Why it’s a big deal

Only the US, Russia and China have previously docked in space. The expertise is critical for advanced missions.

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Inreresting.

 

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People say that it was very difficult as this was achieved with only one motor on bot the satellite.

 

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SpaDeX Mission Successful: India Joins the Group of Elite Nations of Space Technology​

Story by Vidhee Tripathi
• 23h • 2 min read

SpaDeX Mission Successful: India Joins the Group of Elite Nations of Space Technology
ISRO accomplished its first-ever satellite docking maneuver early Thursday, January 16, which is a significant milestone for India's space capabilities. This is being seen as a precursor to several upcoming missions, such as Chandrayaan-4 and the nation's own space station.

The SpaDeX satellites' docking procedure was successfully finished by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Thursday made India stand in line with several developed countries.

India in Line With US, Russia, China​

By doing this, India has started down the path to becoming one of the select few countries that can boast of having such technology, along with the US, Russia, and China. Before claiming to have mastered the technology, ISRO will need to conduct a number of further docking experiments.

ISRO’s Future Plan with SpaDeX Mission​

Chandrayaan-4 Mission: ISRO's first mission to use docking technology could be Chandrayaan-4. The mission aims to collect samples from the Moon and safely return them to Earth.

Re-entry Module: The mission will involve docking the re-entry module with the transfer module, which will carry the lunar samples back to Earth.

Related video: ISRO successfully docks satellites SpaDeX; becomes fourth country to achieve milestone (The Economic Times)

ISRO successfully docks satellites SpaDeX; becomes fourth country to achieve milestone
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Video“We are now among the 3-4 nations…”: Dr Jitendra Singh on ISRO's successful SpaDeX docking
4:27

• Video'India appears to have become master…,' says Scientist Nambi Narayanan on success of ISRO’s SpaDeX
  3:02
• The Times of IndiaISRO Successfully Docks SpaDex Satellites In Historic Space Achievement, PM Modi Congratulates
  3:05

SpaDeX Mission Key Highlights​

• The docking process was carried out using a robotic arm, designed to capture and dock with the target satellite.
• A key mission goal is to transfer power between satellites after docking, crucial for future robotic missions and the Indian Space Station.
• The SpaDeX mission successfully tested free-space technologies, including satellite rendezvous and post-docking activities.
• This achievement positions ISRO as a global leader in space research.
• It paves the way for new opportunities in satellite servicing and collaborative space missions.

Launched on December 30, the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) involved the unification of two independently launched spacecraft at an orbital altitude of around 475 km. The final commands were given from the Isro Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (Istrac) in Bengaluru.

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Key to space ambitions’: India succeeds in historic space docking mission​

Story by Yashraj Sharma
• 1d • 6 min read

Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, which became the first in the world to land near the moon's South Pole, soon after its launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, on Friday, July 14, 2023 [Aijaz Rahi/AP Photo]
New Delhi, India – India on Thursday morning successfully docked one satellite onto another, joining a small group of elite spacefaring nations to have carried out the complex technological feat in zero gravity.

Only the United States, Russia and China have carried out space docking missions, which allow separate satellites to work as a team, coordinating their tasks and sharing resources that can’t be carried on one spacecraft.



The Indian mission, dubbed Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX), lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the country’s southern Andhra Pradesh state on December 30, carrying two satellites, called Chaser and Target.

Like India’s previous headline-grabbing space ventures – from landing on a challenging part of the moon to launching a Mars mission – SpaDeX was built and catapulted into space on a shoestring budget.

Space observers and astrophysicists told Al Jazeera that docking expertise was of “critical importance” to India’s space ambitions and upcoming missions. But why is it a big deal?

Where does it place India vis-a-vis space superpowers? And how does India keep its space costs low?

What did SpaDeX do?​

Chaser and Target each weigh about 220kg (485lb). After being launched together on December 30, the two satellites separated in space.

They flew 470km (292 miles) above Earth, where they were carefully placed in the same orbit – but about 20km (12 miles) apart. There, they tested a range of manoeuvres to prepare for the docking.


Related video: India Achieves Historic Space Docking, Joins Elite Space Club With Unmanned Success | Watch (Oneindia (Video))
India Achieves Historic Space Docking, Joins Elite Space Club With Unmanned Success | Watch
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Then, Chaser slowly nudged towards its partner, Target, before they mated in the early hours of Thursday. The docking attempt was earlier scheduled for January 7 but was delayed by the ISRO after the drift between the twin satellites was noted to be more.

Celebrations broke out at the ISRO headquarters while Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated the space agency for “the successful demonstration of space docking of satellites”.

Modi described the docking as a “significant stepping stone for India’s ambitious space missions in the years to come”.

Why is the docking significant?​

In the run-up to the mission, Jitendra Singh, India’s science and technology minister, said the mission is “vital for India’s future space ambitions”. Singh was referring to an array of projects undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) that include sending a man to the moon by 2040, building India’s first space station, and sending an orbiter to Venus.


Docking technology will be critical in assembling the space station and in crewed missions, providing crucial facilities including in-orbit refueling and assembling heavy infrastructure in microgravity.

“ISRO has demonstrated it is good at launching and putting things in orbit, as well as landing,” said astrophysicist Somak Raychaudhury, vice-chancellor at Ashoka University on the outskirts of New Delhi. “Now, docking is an important part of upcoming missions – and ISRO is now graduating to a very, very significant level.”

In August 2023, the Indian mission Chandrayaan-3 became the first in the world to land near the moon’s South Pole. Since then, ISRO’s ambitions have only grown. The next phase of the moon mission – Chandrayaan-4 – will involve a capsule that will collect samples from the moon and then dock with a return spacecraft for the trip back to Earth.


“Missions like Chandrayaan-4 are so complicated that they cannot be launched in one piece. It’s too heavy and the pieces need to combine in space before landing on the moon to scoop lunar rocks,” explained Raychaudhury.

Demonstrating its docking abilities also enabled ISRO to offer services to others, Raychaudhury added.

Pallava Bagla, co-author of Reaching for the Stars: India’s Journey to Mars and Beyond, concurred that “ISRO needs to master this tech for future missions.”

A unique addition to the SpaDeX mission is the incorporation of two dozen experiments by nongovernmental entities, including space-tech startups and academic institutions.

“By making this platform accessible [to the private sector, we are reducing entry barriers and enabling a wider range of entities to contribute to the space sector,” said Pawan Goenka, chairman of India’s space regulatory body, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre.


Bagla agreed.

“It’s no longer an Indian government space organization,” he said of ISRO. “It is now an Indian space ecosystem in which you have the ISRO as the main player that is now hand-holding private start-ups and institutions.”

‘Innovation, not frugality’​

While ISRO keeps going for the stars, a report by Tracxn, a market intelligence platform, noted that the funding in India’s private space sector plummeted by 55 percent in 2024 to $59.1mn from $130.2m in 2023, a first fall in the last five years. (Reuters reported that the drop comes amid a global 20 percent decline in space sector investment.)

Meanwhile, government funding for the Indian space agency has soared. After the historic landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon and following the launch of a solar probe, Aditya-L1, the Indian government allocated the largest fund ever allocated by the country for future space projects – a kitty of 10 billion rupees ($116 million) – announced in October last year.


However, experts told Al Jazeera that these funds are still minimal given the complexities and ambitions of upcoming projects.

The country’s space agency earlier spent $74m in sending the Mars orbiter and $75m on last year’s Chandrayaan-3. For comparison, NASA’s Mars orbiter cost $582m in 2013 while Russia’s moon mission which crashed two days before Chandrayaan-3’s landing cost $133m. Or take a look at the budget of celebrated space-oriented thrillers like Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar ($165m) and Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity ($100m).

But is this a feature or a bug of the Indian space programme?

Mylswamy Annadurai, who worked for 36 years at ISRO and served as the director of its satellite centre, recalled famous photographs of Indian scientists carrying parts of rockets on a bicycle in 1963, before the country’s first rocket launch.

“After completing its vision concerning providing education, healthcare, weather forecast, and monitoring natural disasters, ISRO realized it was time to move ahead to the dreams no one even dared to see,” Annadurai told Al Jazeera, recalling a conversation with APJ Abdul Kalam, a celebrated aerospace scientist and former president of India. “The next generation, we, thought – ‘Why cannot we go beyond?’”


Annadurai went on to lead India’s first deep space mission, Chandrayaan-1, which made the crucial lunar water discovery on the moon – and earned him the title of India’s “Moonman”. He was also tasked with preparing project reports, including budget demands from the government.

“I knew very, very clearly that we cannot ask for a budget [that is] beyond the scope of the government of India. I needed to justify the cost to the policymakers,” he said, explaining the reasoning for spending a fraction of what other space-going nations pump into missions.

“I know my father’s capabilities of funding my higher education,” Annadurai added, laughing. “We also constrained ourselves to make the mission [Chandrayaan-1] possible within that budget [3.8 billion rupees ($44m)] – and that question of ‘how’ paved the way for ingenious ways.”

Here’s how.

“We only made and flew one hardware module, unlike four to five testers by other agencies,” Annadurai said, listing the ways in which India’s space scientists cut costs. “Using modest launch vehicles, ingenious designs, charting longer and slower trips, and using a lesser amount of fuel.”


Then he joked.

“We are second to none in terms of the space programmes but we are second to everybody when it comes to salaries,” Annadurai said, laughing again, “and that’s a reasonably good reason for low costs.”

To Raychaudhury of Ashoka University, “jugaad” (an informal Hindi term meaning an approach to solving a problem using simple resources) is “one of the distinguishing features of the ISRO missions”.

Yet he believes the focus on ISRO’s low-budget successes is also a legacy of the Western media’s historic criticism and mocking of India’s space efforts. In 2014, after India launched the Mars robotic probe, The New York Times published an infamous cartoon depicting a farmer with a cow knocking at the door of a room marked “Elite Space Club”, where well-suited men sit. The cartoon was called out as “racist” and the newspaper apologised after the controversy.


“We keep trying to justify that we are doing it at a low cost. The ISRO has novel approaches and makes sure to use resources in a very frugal way,” Raychaudhury said.

But ISRO should also be getting plaudits for its innovations, he added.

“This fixation on the budget is now becoming a barrier,” Raychaudhury said.

“Innovation should be ISRO’s identity, not frugality.”

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New ISRO space docking video released, it captures historic event that put India in elite club of nations: WATCH​

Story by Livemint
• 2h • 2 min read

The ISRO released a video showing the coupling of the satellites in the space.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released a video of the successful docking experiment involving two satellites as part of its Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) on Friday.

The ISRO "successfully" completed docking of two SPADEX satellites (SDX-01 & SDX-02) in the early hours of January, 16, 2025. This made India part of "the elite club of nations’ — becoming the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to achieve space-docking technology.

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Following the achievement, the ISRO released a video showing the coupling of the satellites in the space. It was followed by new ISRO Chairperson V Narayanan greeting the space agency team which made it a success.

"ISRO successfully completed docking of two SPADEX satellites (SDX-01 & SDX-02) in the early hours of January 16, 2025," the space agency said in the caption for the video it released on 'X'.


The SpaDeX mission was launched on December 30. It aimed to showcase India's technological prowess in spacecraft rendezvous, docking, and undocking.

The docking process was executed with exceptional precision. The spacecraft manoeuvred seamlessly from the 15-metre to the 3-meter hold point, initiating docking with accuracy and leading to successful spacecraft capture.


Related video: SpaDeX: ISRO's most sophisticated mission (WION)

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The ISRO said on Thursday that “spacecraft docking [has been] successfully completed". The Indian space agency, in a social media post, deemed it as an “historic moment”.

“India became the 4th country to achieve successful Space Docking. Congratulations to the entire team! Congratulations to India!” ISRO posted on X.

Why is ‘docking’ essential?​

ISRO said that in space, docking technology is essential when multiple rocket launches are required to achieve common mission objectives.

The docking experiment is crucial for the smooth conduct of the country's ambitious future missions, including Chandrayaan-4, Gaganyaan, setting up a space station and landing an astronaut on the moon.

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ISRO has also said that the undocking and power transfer checks will follow in coming days.

Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science and Technology and Earth Science Jitender Singh said Friday that an Indian Space station would be established by 2035 and the successful docking of satellites through SpaDex is a major breakthrough in that direction.

Speaking during his visit to Shimla IMD station, the minister was quoted by PTI as saying Bhartiya Antriksh Station is essential for docking of satellites in future.

Last October, the government announced that India will have its own Space Station by 2035, known as the "Bharatiya Antriksh Station".

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