India achieves historic feat, successfully undocks SpaDeX satellites

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: India has become the fourth country to master 'docking' and 'de-docking' technology in space. ISRO demonstrated its strength by docking the separately launched satellites and then separating the two in space. US, Russia and China have previously achieved this feat.

The de-docking of the Target and Chaser satellites was completed at 9.30 am on Thursday. The ground stations in Lucknow, Bangalore and Mauritius supervised the operation.

The 220-kilogram Target and Chaser satellites were launched on December 30. They were docked on January 16 at an altitude of 470 kilometers above the Earth. On Thursday, they were separated and reassembled into two satellites. ISRO released images of the mission captured by the satellites' onboard cameras.

Boosting confidence….

• Large space missions can be carried out at low cost.

• Satellites can be controlled from space and used for complex missions.

• Mission success big boost for upcoming Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan 4, and Space Station missions.

De-Docking…

• After docking, the chaser and target orbited the Earth as a single satellite

• The separation process began on March 10, when the satellite reached an elliptical orbit at an altitude of 460 km above the Earth.

• Currently, Chaser and Target are orbiting the Earth as two satellites. ISRO will be able to conduct more experiments on these satellites until March 25.