Chicago – January 16, 2025
India on Thursday became the fourth country to successfully achieve an unmanned docking in space, a feat seen as pivotal for future missions as New Delhi cements its place as a global space power.
The United States, Russia and China are the only other countries to have developed and tested the docking capability.
“Spacecraft docking successfully completed! A historic moment,” the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said on X.
The Indian space agency’s mission, called the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDex), involved deploying two small spacecraft, weighing about 220 kilograms each, into low-earth orbit. The two spacecraft, called Target and Chaser, blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in southern Andhra Pradesh state on December 30 aboard an Indian-made PSLV rocket.
On Thursday, they conducted a rendezvous before docking together.
India’s “SpaDex mission marks the beginning of a new era in space exploration, showcasing India’s technological prowess and ambition,” Minister for Space Jitendra Singh said on X at the time it launched.
In-docking technology is critical for future space endeavors, such as satellite servicing and when multiple rocket launches are required to achieve mission objectives.
