ISRO's SpaDEX Mission Achieves Successful 2nd Satellite Docking

By siliconindia  |  Monday, 21 April 2025, 11:07:49 AM IST

ISRO's SpaDEX Mission Achieves Successful 2nd Satellite Docking
Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday stated that ISRO's SpaDEX mission has successfully achieved its second satellite docking. The achievement comes after the first docking, which was conducted on January 16, 2025. Singh reported that additional experiments are to be conducted over the next two weeks, marking a thrilling follow-up to the success of the mission.
The PSLV-C60 rocket was launched on December 30, 2024, with two tiny satellites, SDX01 (Chaser) and SDX02 (Target), and 24 other payloads. The spacecraft, weighing about 220 kg each, were put into a 475-kilometer circular orbit. On January 16, 2025, the first successful docking took place following an initial test on January 12, during which the satellites were brought within three meters of one another before stepping back to a safe distance for the docking operation.
ISRO's SpaDEX mission has established India as only the fourth country in the world to succeed with satellite docking. The mission has been engineered as a low-cost technology demonstrator, which tests in-space docking with small space vehicles. January 16's docking is one of the pioneering steps toward developing future space exploration technologies, as more experiments have been planned within the next fortnight.
Minister Singh was confident of the SpaDEX mission's success and its contribution to India's space exploration capability.

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