“Bharat paces to become the fourth nation to master space docking” : Amit Shah says

Union Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the successful launch of the SpaDeX Mission, hailing it as a groundbreaking achievement that propels India closer to becoming the fourth nation to master space docking technology in his social media platform on Tuesday.

In a post on social media platform X, Union Minister Amit Shah said,” Bharat paces to become the fourth nation to master space docking. He said Kudos to Team @isro on the successful launch of #SpaDeX Mission.”

“This is a grand success that opens a new path for Bharat in space docking technology and strengthens its role as a global leader in space. All my best wishes to our geniuses for the journey ahead,” the post added on X.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched PSLV-C60 with SpaDeX and innovative payloads from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

ISRO’s year-end mission is historic as it seeks the rare feat of docking or merging or joining together two satellites in space. The project has been named “Space Docking Experiment” (SpaDeX).

The first stage performance is normal.SpaDeX mission is a cost-effective technology demonstrator mission for the demonstration of in-space docking using two small spacecraft launched by PSLV.

The primary objective of the SpaDeX mission is to develop and demonstrate the technology needed for rendezvous, docking, and undocking of two small spacecraft (SDX01, which is the Chaser, and SDX02, the Target, nominally) in a low-Earth circular orbit.

The technological challenge has been mastered only by a few countries and the indigenous technology used for this mission is called the “Bharatiya Docking System”.

“The success of this mission is vital for India’s future space ambitions,” Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh had said earlier. Docking technology is key for long-term missions like “Chandrayaan-4” and the planned Indian space station. It is also crucial for the eventual manned “Gaganyaan” mission.