Science: India successfully docks two satellites in orbit

The Indian space agency announced Thursday that it had successfully docked two small satellites in orbit. This success is hailed as “historic” and crucial for its lunar mission and space station plans.

“Successful docking of the two machines! A historic moment,” rejoiced the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in a message posted on social networks. With this success, India became the fourth country in the world to successfully complete a docking operation in orbit, a technical feat previously achieved only by Russia, the United States and China.

The two small machines, weighing 220 kg each, were sent into space on December 30 by an Indian PSLV-60 rocket from the Sriharikota launch pad, on the east coast of India. Delayed for technical reasons, the maneuver began on January 12, while the two satellites were flying at more than 28,000 km/h at 470 km above our heads.

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This SpaDeX mission aimed to “develop and experiment with the technology required for rendezvous, docking and undocking of two small spacecraft,” ISRO recalled. This technology should be used by the Indian space agency for the Chandrayaan-4 mission, planned for 2028, which is to bring a handful of lunar samples back to Earth.

India has embarked on an ambitious space exploration program that has allowed it to match or even surpass the achievements of other major powers at considerably lower costs. The most populous country on the planet managed to land a spacecraft on the Moon in 2023, for the first time near its south pole.

India plans a first manned orbital flight in 2025, the commissioning of a space station in 2034, before a human mission to the Moon that Hindu ultranationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced by 2040.