India Joins Elite Club of Space Nations With Latest Orbital Test

ISRO, India’s space agency, has successfully completed the docking of two spacecraft into orbit, a major achievement that makes the agency only the fourth to manage the feat.

The dramatic pairing between two satellites happened late yesterday about 295 miles (475 kilometers) above Earth. The achievement is significant; in addition to the fact that India is now only the fourth country to attack spacecraft in orbit, it is a milestone in the country’s ambitious space program.

According to SpaceNewsthe two spacecraft – launched on December 30 – were supposed to dock on January 7, but the drift in the position of the satellites delayed the maneuver. ISRO announced the successful docking at X yesterday, and noted that shutdown and power transfer checks on the spacecraft will take place in the coming days.

SpaDeX Docking Update:

🌟Docking Success

Spaceship docking successfully completed! A historical moment.

Let’s walk through the SpaDeX docking process:

Maneuver from 15m to 3m waiting point complete. The mating began with precision, leading to a successful spacecraft capture…

— ISRO (@isro) January 16, 2025

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, said about X that the achievement “is a significant step for India’s ambitious space missions in the coming years.”

Today, ISRO announced that the government has approved a third launch pad at the agency’s Satish Dhawan Space Center. According to the agency’s release, the additional launch pad “enhances the Indian Space ecosystem by enabling higher launch frequencies and the national capability to undertake human space missions and space exploration.” The agency plans to finish construction of the launchpad in four years.

The successful docking test is the latest milestone for ISRO, which is rapidly ramping up its efforts in spaceflight.

In 2019, India deliberately knocked out one of its satellites in a show of force that planted the country’s flag as a power in space. India has become only the fourth country to display anti-satellite (ASAT) capability, after Russia, China and the United States. India also has ambitions beyond low Earth orbit. In 2023, the country’s Chandrayaan-3 mission landed on the Moon and immediately done observations of its south pole. That same year, India Aditya-L1 mission successfully launched and began to observe space weather and its effects on our planet. In 2023, the failure of the demonstrator laid the groundwork for what was to be ISRO’s first manned space mission.

Congratulations #ISRO. Finally he did. SPADEX has come up with the amazing… complete docking… and it is all indigenous “Bharatiya Docking System”. This paves the way for smooth conduct of ambitious future missions including the Bharatiya Antriksha Station, Chandrayaan 4 and…

– Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) January 16, 2025

Jitendra Singh, India’s Minister of State for Science and Technology, announced the recent docking in a social media post, noting that it paves the way for several ISRO missions. An unmanned test flight of Gaganyaan is planned for later this year, which, if successful, will put the agency one big step closer to sending people into space.

At the risk of bordering on cliché, it was a relatively simple maneuver for the ISRO spacecraft, but a big step — and a statement of intent — for the country’s space program.