India's Expedition in Space Docking

The indigenous technology, crucial for satellite servicing, space station operations, and interplanetary missions, positions India for a key role in commercial and exploratory space efforts.

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India became the world's fourth nation on Thursday to achieve the feat of space docking, a technological milestone that underscores its ambitions to expand its share of a rapidly growing $400-billion global space market.

Target and Chaser, two satellites of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that are each roughly the size of a large refrigerator, successfully latched onto each other at about 9 a.m. (0330 GMT), an agency spokesperson said.

The indigenous technology, crucial for satellite servicing, space station operations, and interplanetary missions, positions India for a key role in commercial and exploratory space efforts.

"India has ambitious missions planned and to achieve those, this is an important technology," astrophysicist Jayant Murthy said.

"Various missions, like building a space station, need assembly in space, which is not possible without space docking."

ISRO said the two satellites participating in its Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX), will now be controlled as a single object, with power transfer checks made in the next few days.

The mission had been postponed twice, first because the docking process needed further validation through ground simulations, and then to resolve an issue stemming from excess drift between the satellites.

SpaDeX, launched on Dec. 30 from India's main spaceport, deployed the satellites in orbit with an Indian-made rocket.

Among 24 payloads and experiments were eight cowpea seeds, sent to space to study plant growth in microgravity conditions, which germinated within four days of the mission's launch.

LET'S UNDERSTAND DOCKING