India successfully conducts historic space docking test

The Indian space agency Isro has successfully carried out a space docking for the first time by joining two small ships in space.

The technology is essential to the country’s future ambition to build an Indian space station and land a person on the Moon.

The mission called SpaDeX detached from the Sriharikota launch pad in southern India on December 30. The two spacecraft, which had lunch on a single rocket, separated in space. The docking process, initially scheduled for January 7, was rescheduled several times.

On Thursday morning, the space agency announced that it had made history by becoming the fourth country in the world with such technology, after the United States, Russia and China.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the Isro office in Bengaluru while scientists carried out the test.

“It is an important step for India’s ambitious space missions in the coming years,” he later posted on X.

Federal Science Minister Jitendra Singh expressed relief that the docking had “finally” taken place.

The two SpaDeX (short for Space Docking Experiment) spacecraft are called SDX01 or Chaser and SDX02 or Target. Each weighs about 220 kg (485 lb) and, upon launch, they were traveling through space at a carefully chosen speed.

“They were launched into space together, but at the time of separation, they were placed with different speeds to allow them to build a distance of 10 to 20 kilometers between them,” said Mila Mitra, former NASA scientist and co-founder of NASA-based NASA. in Delhi. space education company Stem and Space told the BBC.

“During docking, the scientists maneuvered to shorten that distance, allowing them to mate,” he added.

The docking was initially scheduled for January 7, but Isro delayed it by two days saying they “needed to conduct more tests through simulations” before the actual docking.

The second time, he said there had been a technical problem trying to bring the satellites closer, but added that the the spaceships were safe.

On Sunday, Isro said scientists had managed to reduce the distance between the Chaser and the Target first to 15 meters and then to 3 meters. They said that after the test attempt, the spacecraft was “returned to a safe distance” and that they were analyzing data.

S Somanath, who was Isro chief when SpaDeX (short for Space Docking Experiment) was launched and was monitoring its progress until his retirement a few days ago, had described the docking as “a very complex process” that needed extreme precision and coordination.

To begin with, the two spacecraft had to be in the same orbit so that the Chaser could begin to approach the Target.

On Thursday morning, scientists began gradually slowing the two spacecraft, bringing them closer and closer until they were just 3 meters apart. Then their connectors were joined together.

In the next step, the two spacecraft bolted together perfectly, creating an airtight passage for the safe transfer of material or crew, completing the space docking.

An Isro official told the BBC that over the next two or three days, the mission will carry out what is billed as one of its most important experiments: transferring electrical power from the Chaser to the Target.

According to Ms Mitra, this is intended to demonstrate that one spacecraft can be sent to service another in space.

The experiment will then demonstrate “the uncoupling and separation of the two satellites.”

Mitra says the mission will also test India’s capabilities for inter-satellite communication, as during docking and undocking, the spacecraft will have to communicate with the ground station and also with each other to know the position and speed of each.

The spacecraft also carry scientific instruments and cameras that will later be deployed. Over the next two years, they will measure radiation in space and monitor Earth’s natural resources.

Isro, known for economizing its missions, is also using a part of the rocket that carried SpaDeX into space – which under normal circumstances would become space junk – to carry out important experiments in orbit for three months.

Poem, short for PS4-Orbital Experiment Module, carries 24 payloads and has already carried out two successful experiments.

The first demonstrated seed germination. Last week, Isro tweeted a video saying that “cowpea sprouts have revealed their first leaves in microgravity space.” Microgravity is the condition of near weightlessness experienced aboard spacecraft.

Scientists say this is great news as it means future astronauts could produce food during long-duration missions.

The second experiment involves the robotic arm, which Mitra said is among the rocket’s most important payloads. TO video Isro’s X account shows the robotic arm moving to grab a piece of space junk.

Mitra says this arm will play “a crucial role during the construction of the space station, as it could be used to capture and put things in place.” It will also be useful in Chandrayaan-4, India’s next mission to the Moon, which will aim to collect and bring back samples of lunar soil, he adds.

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