ISRO will demonstrate ‘docking’ of satellites in space in January, launch on Monday

New Delhi, December 29 (Language) The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will launch two satellites from the Sriharikota space center on Monday night to demonstrate ‘docking’ and ‘undocking’ of spacecraft in orbit. If the demonstration is successful, India will become the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat.

ISRO’s rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will place two satellites SDX-1 and SDX-II in a 476 km circular orbit and attempt the Space Docking Experiment (SPADX) in the first week of January, space agency officials said. .

Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said, “This mission will mark India’s entry into the special category of countries capable of mastering space docking.”

The SpadX mission is expected to prove to be an important step for India’s future efforts in space exploration, including bringing rocks and soil from the Moon to Earth, the proposed Indian space station and landing an astronaut on the lunar surface.

So far only America, Russia and China have mastered space docking technology.

An ISRO official said, “The primary objective of the SpadX mission is to combine two small spacecraft (SDX-1, which is the chaser, and SDX-II, which is the target), in a low Earth circular orbit and ‘docking’ them together.” To develop and demonstrate the technology required for ‘undocking’.”

The second objective of the mission is to demonstrate the transfer of electrical power between docked spacecraft which is necessary for future applications such as in-space robotics, overall spacecraft control after separation from docking, and payload operations.

“This capability is critical for India’s lunar and interplanetary missions,” Singh said. Docking technology enables multiple launch missions and supports future human spaceflight.”

After performing ‘docking’ and ‘undocking’ experiments, both satellites will continue to orbit the Earth for separate missions for two years. The SDX-one satellite is equipped with a High Resolution Camera (HRC) and SDX-two has two payloads, a Miniature Multispectral (MMX) payload and a Radiation Monitor (RADMON).

ISRO said these payloads will provide high-resolution images, natural resource monitoring, vegetation studies and in-orbit radiation environment measurements, which have multiple applications.