SpaDeX achieves first successful undocking, next docking in April

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday recorded its first successful undocking as part of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) mission.

- BOSKY KHANNA @Bengaluru

The two lightweight satellites, SDX-01 (the chaser) and SDX-02 (target) successfully separated almost a month-and-a-half after it was supposed to be achieved.

With this success, ISRO is now bracing for its future missions — Chandrayaan-4, Bhartiya Antriksh Mission, the planned space mission Gaganyaan, and Man on Moon mission. Most of these would require the docking and undocking procedures in which one satellite or spacecraft attaches or detaches from the other. SDX-01 and SDX-02 had autonomously docked on January 16, nine days after the initial plan of docking on January 7. Subsequently, the undocking of these satellites, which was planned to happen by January-end or February first week, got delayed due to technical issues.

Although the successful undocking happened at around 9.20 am, ISRO announced on social media platform 'X' only at 12.21 pm, after assessing all the parameters.