BENGALURU: Isro has successfully managed to dock the two Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) satellites for the second time, an achievement that would give the space agency data to further better its technology in the future.
V Narayanan, chairman, Isro, told TOI: “This is a significant achievement and further activities are being planned now.” Stating that the docking operation was “smooth” he said his team managed to do it as if it were “child’s play”.
Union minister Jitendra Singh announced the docking and said: “Glad to inform that the second docking of satellites has been accomplished. As informed earlier, the PSLV-C60/SpaDeX mission was launched on Dec 30, 2024. Thereafter, the satellites were successfully docked for the first time on Jan 16 at 6.20am, and the successfully undocked on March 13, 2025, at 9.20am.”
Isro is yet to release an official statement with details of the second docking. According to sources, the second docking was attempted post 7pm on Sunday (April 20) and the operation was carried out “more precisely than the first attempt”. “These are important lessons,” one of them said.
Between the undocking on March 13 and the second docking operation, Isro had carried out a “rolling” or “rotating” experiment — in late March, which was first reported by TOI. At the time, Narayanan, while confirming the success of the operation, had said that more experiments were in store.
TOI had reported soon after the first docking that Isro would attempt more docking experiments using the same satellites. In late March, Narayanan had reiterated that and told TOI: “…The satellites have a lot of propellant… I have only told [the teams] one thing, please do everything [on] simulation on ground [first]. Let us be very careful. Let us not make any mistakes as a wealth of data can be generated [through various experiments].”
The rolling experiment, which was likened to the Chandrayaan-3 “hop” experiment the space agency conducted on Moon in terms of learning it provides for future missions, helped Isro validate multiple softwares, ground station control and more.
Isro’s first docking on Jan 16, was only the first step towards Isro mastering this technology that is critical for several future missions, including the Chandrayaan-4 sample return mission to the Moon and human spaceflight missions part of the extended Gaganyaan programme.
And, the second docking is another step. Isro would still need to dock in various conditions, some of which will be attempted as part of the current mission. The space agency is expected to conduct more docking as part of SpaDeX.