Did India complete yet another major semi-spy project without informing anyone? SpaDeX seems to have the answers.

India’s SpaDeX mission, which took off on December 30, focuses on perfecting the painstaking process of spacecraft orbital refueling during a voyage into outer space which has been a field of interest. The technology demonstration which involves the deployment of two small spacecraft mounted on the Indian PSLV rocket is indispensable to some of India’s objectives such as human missions into outer space and assembling structures within outer space. 

The software for the docking maneuver had to be adjusted due to unreasonable drifts noticed between the two spacecraft. This coincides with Narayanan’s commencement office switching places with K. Radhakrishnan’s position as ISRO’s chairman. Keeping the public in the picture through a series of X (previously Twitter) updates, ASRO’s team constantly worked diligently to communicate challenges. On the 9th of February, the agency informed that the drift has been contained and the two spacecraft were slowly positioned in a safe direction, comparing them to a carefully planned voyage to Paris.

As of January 10th, the two probes were reported to be 1.5 kilometers apart, both in hold mode, and the next step’s goal was to deploy them to a distance of 500 meters, since then, ISRO has changed its method of communication, choosing to simply declare its mission accomplished instead of providing step-by-step updates. This seems to minimize the overall emphasis on the delay and put it on what the mission has accomplished.

With SpaDeX, the dominate objectives of the Indian Space programme culminated in that India showcases its intention of acquiring superlative space technologies. In the scenario that the first docking for Spacecraft SDX01 and SDX02 actually works, India will join the likes of the US, Russia and China as the fourth country that has demonstrated such capabilities. Such advanced capabilities and skills will be needed by ISRO for its plans in the future like bringing back the samples from the Moon, construct a space station by the year of 2035, and dispatch astronauts to the Moon by the year of 2040.

Set 20kms apart from one another, the mission will employ an SDX01 (Chaser) and an SDX02 (Target) and send them to LEO. The Target sat is designed to have progressively longer distances between each stop and hold while it approaches the Target sat. The two satellites will dock once the Chaser is the furthest from the Target which is 3 meters.

Although there were initial hurdles, the SpaDeX mission still highlights India’s emerging strength in the arena of space exploration. It is indicative of the fact that the nation is progressing and inspires confidence in achieving the ambitious targets, as well as consolidating India’s standing in the international space industry.

Chandrayaan-4: Indian SpacecraftCirk-4: The Indian Cradle of Spacetuck Around the Moon

There are many reasons why the docking experiment is necessary. A former ISRO official explained that the emphasis currently is on providing assistance to the Chandrayaan-4 which is supplemeted with the futuristic objective of establishing an Indian space station in the long-term.

Speaking of the docking dynamic, the Chandrayaan-4 is supposed to incorporate a fair share of docking as well as undocking activities first in the earth’s orbit and later in the orbit around the moon.

There are many reasons why the boarding experiments are crucial. Former ISRO officer says that the current goal is to facilitate the Chandrayaan-4 mission, but the long-term objective is to prepare for the future space station of India.

The two rockets will launch the separate modules, and these modules will assemble in GTO. Then both the modules will be launched towards the moon where one of the modules will land while one will stay in orbit and the other will collect the samples from the moon.

As stated by P. Veeramuthuvel – an ISRO scientist who is also the project director of the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, one of the modules that do land on the moon will take off again and enter into the orbit. This will then connect itself to the module that is already resting parked in lunar orbit. He shared this information in October 2024 during the International Astronautical Conference held in Milan.

The samples gathered will be transferred from the ascent module to the transfer module. After this is done, the ascent module will be separated and then the transfer module will be detached from the moon’s gravitational field. It will then embark on travelling to earth orbits through trans earth injection. Close near the Earth transfer module will deploy the re-entry module which will fall into earth and the set Nanak location.

Docking: The Cosmic Handshake that Will Build India’s Space Station

In simple terms, India’s first space station would allow spacecraft to dock and disembark just as a moveable bridge connects ships, airplanes, and terminals. This is a necessary aspect for various reasons considering India’s proposed Bharatiya Antariksh Station:

Making the Station: BAS essentially is a great big space lego kit and it could be built through various logistics elements. First, modules could be built on the ground and individually flown into orbit where they could then be docked together to create the fully functional station.

Moving People: There is a need for astronauts to travel to the station and return back. This would involve crew capsules needing to dock and undock multiple times to allow for safe transportation and transportation of astronauts.

Moving goods and doing new experiments: BAS along with other experiments would love to try and do new experiments. Docking could allow freighter spaceships to do just that. Thus BAS would depend on docking for deliveries too. 

Global Reach: Other nations would like to participate in the BARS project. Connecting spacecraft from different countries includes the opportunity for them to collaborate over particular projects.

Future Projects: In the future flyouts deeper into space, it might be possible using BAS. Spacecraft might need to dock into BAS before going on those missions and therefore docking becomes highly crucial for those missions.

Having demonstrated docking capability as SpaceX does, it is a key step towards realising India’s ambitious space station plans.