With the successful execution of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDex), ISRO propels India closer to manned space missions, satellite servicing, and strategic space dominance.
India has joined an exclusive club alongside the United States, Russia, and China by demonstrating its ability to accomplish highly critical manoeuvres of docking and undocking satellites in space. With this feat, India is a step closer to launching manned space missions, conducting in-space satellite servicing, or building its own space station.
The Space Docking Experiment (SpaDex), a twin-satellite mission, was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on December 30, 2024, to demonstrate technologies related to orbital rendezvous (meeting), docking (joining), formation flying (travelling as a single unit), and undocking (separation).
The complexities of the operation involved launching two satellites in opposite directions and manoeuvring them to travel toward each other for docking. As the two satellites were travelling at 28,800 kilometres per hour, or 8 kilometres per second, Isro had to perform meticulous calculations for docking. It did not have the luxury of even a small error, which could have caused the satellites to drift off into space. However, Isro successfully docked the satellites with textbook accuracy on January 16.
After operating the two satellites as a single unit for 65 days, Isro undocked them on March 13. Similar to docking, undocking also requires extremely high levels of engineering skill, as the single command system that was in operation for both satellites while they were docked had to be seamlessly replaced with dual command systems after undocking.
Apart from civilian applications and space exploration, mastery of docking and undocking technologies could also play a crucial role in developing anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities.
This technology enables a country to disable enemy satellites without physically destroying them in war-like situations by docking with and jamming adversary assets. The United States, Russia, and China already possess this technology. If India did not acquire it, the country would be at an immense disadvantage, given the critical role satellite navigation plays in both civilian and military domains.
