ISRO's SpaDeX Mission Achieves Successful Second Satellite Docking

Union Minister Jitendra Singh announced in a post on X that the second satellite docking for the PSLV-C60/SpaDeX mission was successfully completed on Monday.

The ISRO SpaDex mission had successfully achieved the undocking of two of its satellites on March 13.(ISROInsight/X/ Screengrab)

“As informed earlier, the PSLV-C60 / SPaDeX mission was successfully launched on 30 December 2024. Thereafter, the satellites were successfully docked for the first time on 16 January 2025 at 06:20 AM and successfully undocked on 13 March 2025 at 09:20 AM. Further experiments are planned in the next two weeks,” the minister added.

Launch of SpaDeX Mission on December 30

The SpaDeX mission was initiated on December 30 of last year, when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched two satellites — SDX01 and SDX02 — into orbit to carry out a docking experiment in space.

According to a statement by the agency, ISRO achieved the undocking of the SpaDeX satellites on its very first attempt, which took place on March 13 at 09:20 IST.

The undocking occurred in a circular orbit at an altitude of 460 kilometers with an inclination of 45 degrees. Both satellites are now orbiting independently and are in good health, the agency confirmed.

This milestone marks ISRO’s successful demonstration of all key capabilities needed for rendezvous, docking, and undocking operations in circular orbit.

“On January 16, we had a major achievement; we successfully docked both the satellites together, and it was rotating as a single body. Then, we wanted to separate it out, the undocking process, for that we carried out a lot of studies and analysis and we made a simulator and carried out 120 simulations, as there should not be any mistakes. On 13th March, at 9:20 am, in the first attempt itself, we succeeded in the undocking process,” Dr. V. Narayanan, Chairman of ISRO, was quoted by ANI as saying.

When asked about the future of manned missions in India, the ISRO chairman emphasized that they take lessons from even the smallest setbacks, "We learn lessons from all small setbacks of us and others. This is a very complex technology, so we learn. Whatever setbacks are there, we are taking care of them, and we are quite confident in the type of effort that is put. The type of dedication of Indian scientists is something else."

(This Article was originally published by Hindustan times)