🌟 Docking Success
ISRO’s SpaDeX mission accomplishes historic docking success. Proud to witness this moment! 🛰️
Following the docking, ISRO has successfully managed both satellites as a combined unit.
In the upcoming days, ISRO will proceed with undocking and power transfer evaluations.
SpaDeX Update:
India became the fourth country, after Russia, China and the United States, to achieve successful “Space Docking” capabilities which are essential for future human and space missions.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday (16/01/2025) said that “spacecraft docking [has been] successfully completed". The Indian space agency, in a social media post, deemed it as an “historic moment”
The Space Docking process was one of the primary goals of ISRO's SpaDeX Mission, which was launched on December 31.
What is space docking?
“Docking” happens when a spacecraft can manoeuvre and attach to a space station by itself. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration defines docking as “mating operations where an active vehicle flies into the mating interface under its own power”.
Meanwhile, ISRO explained that in-space docking technology is useful when multiple rockets are launched into space to achieve common mission objectives.
How was space docking performed?
ISRO explained the SpaDeX docking process. It said, “Manoeuvre from 15m to 3m hold point completed. Docking was initiated with precision, leading to successful spacecraft capture. Retraction was completed smoothly, followed by rigidisation for stability. Docking successfully completed.”
Later, the “successful separation of SpaDeX satellites” marked another milestone in India's space journey.
The SpaDex mission was launched with two small satellites – Chaser and Target—aboard a PSLV-C60 rocket. Earlier, the ISRO explained that a small relative velocity was given between the Target and Chaser spacecraft at the time of separation from the launch vehicle.
This incremental velocity allowed the Target spacecraft to build a 10-20 km inter-satellite separation with respect to the Chaser within a day.
At the end of this "drift arrest manoeuvre", the Target and Chaser were in the same orbit with identical velocity but separated by about 20 km, known as "Far Rendezvous".
The Chaser then approached the Target with progressively reduced inter-satellite distances of 5 km, 1.5 km, 500 m, 225 m, 15 m, and 3 m, ultimately leading to the docking of the two spacecraft.
After successful docking and rigidization, electrical power transfer between the two satellites will be demonstrated before the undocking and separation of the two satellites to start the operation of their respective payloads.
Congratulations to the entire ISRO team! Congratulations to India!🎊
🛰️🛰️
#SPADEX #ISRO