India completes first space docking

Bengaluru — 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 $400bn global space market.

Target and Chaser, two satellites of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that are each about the size of a large refrigerator, successfully latched onto each other at about 3.30am 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 December 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.

Scientists said this was a critical step demonstrating that food can eventually be grown in space during long missions.

The mission will also demonstrate the transfer of electric power between docked spacecraft, key to applications such as in-space robotics, composite spacecraft control and payload operations after undocking. Such techniques are essential for missions requiring multiple rocket launches. Space exploration and commercialisation is a key part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to position India as a global superpower. The successful SpaDeX mission “is a significant stepping stone for India’s ambitious space missions in the years to come,” Modi said on X.

On Thursday, India approved the setting-up of a third launch pad in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, to be completed in four years at a cost of 39.85-billion rupees ($461m), giving a further boost to its space plans.

ISRO is focused on deep-space exploration and enabling private companies to commercialise the sector, with projects ranging from solar studies to orbital astronaut missions and planetary defence, in collaboration with Nasa.

With the global commercial space market expected to reach $1- trillion by 2030, India aims to grow its share to $44bn by 2040, up from $8bn, or a slice of just 2%, now.

Reuters