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On Friday evening, the satellites were separated by 1.5 km. ISRO said the distance will be reduced to 500 m on Saturday morning
A successful demonstration of SpaDeX will not only show the world that India has mastered the art of spaceflight but will also play a major role in ISRO’s future missions. Photo/News18
The two Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) satellites that ISRO intends to put into orbit are currently separated by a distance of 230 m, and their health condition is considered ‘normal’, the space agency said on Saturday.
On Friday evening, the satellites were separated by 1.5 km. ISRO said the distance will be reduced to 500 m on Saturday morning.
In a post at ‘X’, ISRO said, “Bonded at Inter Satellite Distance (ISD) 230 m, all sensors are being checked. Spacecraft health is normal.” The space agency, however, does not commit to a date for conducting the docking tests, which will include satellites in space.
The SpaDeX project has already missed two announced schedules for docking tests on January 7 and 9.
ISRO successfully launched the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) mission on December 30.
The PSLV C60 rocket carrying two small satellites, SDX01 (Chaser) and SDX02 (Target), and 24 payloads, lifted off from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, and about 15 minutes after liftoff, these there are two small ones. the spacecraft weighing 220 kg each were launched into a circular orbit of 475 km as intended.
According to ISRO, the SpaDeX mission is a low-cost technology demonstrator mission to demonstrate space reentry using two small spacecraft launched by PSLV.
This technology is important for India’s space ambitions like Indian on Moon, return sample from Moon, construction and operation of Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), etc.
Space docking technology is essential when multiple rocket launches are required to achieve the same mission objectives. With this project, India is marching towards becoming the fourth country in the world to have space technology.
(This story was not edited by News18 staff and was published by the syndicated news agency – PTI)