India's Historic Space Docking Mission: A New Era in Space Exploration

 

NEW DELHI — 

India launched a two small spacecraft Monday in the first step toward it's goal of manning the moon and building a space station.

The launch was broadcast live by India's space research organization on the island of Sriharikota, and ISRO said it was 'vital for India's future space ambitions.'

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans to send a man to the moon by 2040.

Two 220-kilogram (485 pound) satellites were on the PSLV-C60 rocket that blasted off Monday evening at Sriharikota's launch site, with shooting flames as it soared into the night sky.

The mission is being dubbed by ISRO as SpaDeX, for Space Docking Experiment.

"On this success flight, PSLV-C60 has launched SpaDeX and 24 payloads," it said in a statement.

It intends to 'develop and demonstrate the technology to rendezvous, dock and undock two small spacecraft,' according to the mission.

The technology is "crucial" to India's moon plans, it added, describing it as "a key technology for future human space flight and satellite servicing missions."

The maneuver will be a 'precision rendezvous' between the satellites occupied the Earth at 28,800 kilometers per hour (17,895 miles per hour).

ISRO said their velocity would be lowered to '0.036 kph (0.22 mph), to merge in Space to form a Single Unit.

The world’s most populous nation has a relatively inexpensive aerospace program that is on pace to meet milestones set by the world’s leading space powers.

After Russia, the United States and China, 'This mission is taking Indian to become 4th country in the world to have space docking technology,' ISRO said in an a press release.

In the last decade India has flexed its space faring ambitions with its space program growing larger, but also faster, commensurate with the limbs countries of Asia but at a much cheaper price tag.

It became just the fourth nation to land an unmanned craft on the moon after Russia, China and the United States in August 2023.