On Monday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), successfully launched its Space Docking Experiment mission (SpaDeX).
The PSLV C60 rocket, carrying two small satellites SDX01(Chaser), and SDX02(Target) along with 24 other payloads, launched from the Satish Dahwan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, at 10 pm. They were placed into a circular orbit of 475 km, as planned.
The rocket placed the satellites into the correct orbit, which is a circular orbit of 475 km. The solar panels of the spacecraft have been successfully deployed. Over time, the two SpaDeX satellites will move one behind the other. The distance will increase 20 km in the next few days. Docking can take place in a week. The nominal time is January 7, according to ISRO Chairman S Somanth.
JUST IN | #ISRO‘s PSLV-C60 with the Space Docking Experiment (#SPADEX) and 24 experimental payloads lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, @hemanth_cs reports pic.twitter.com/O1rmKXQDQx
The Hindu (@the_hindu). December 30, 2024
ISRO’s SpaDeX mission aims to demonstrate technologies for spacecraft rendezvous docking and undocking by using two small satellites that have only been mastered in a select group of spacefaring countries.
Demonstrating this technology will be essential for future missions, such as sending an Indian astronaut to the Moon, returning samples from the Moon and building the Indian Space Station.
ISRO stated that the precision demonstrated by the PSLV vehicle would be used to provide a small relative speed between the Target and Chaser satellites at the time of their separation from the launch vehicle.
This incremental velocity will enable the Target spacecraft, within one day, to achieve a separation of 10-20 km between the Target and the Chaser. ISRO stated that at this point the relative velocity of the Target and the Chaser will be compensated by the propulsion system on the Target spacecraft.
ISRO said that after this drift-arrest manoeuvre, Target and Chaser would be in the exact same orbit, with the identical velocity, but separated by approximately 20 km. This is known as Far Rendezvous.
The report added that “With a similarly strategy of introducing a small relative speed between the two satellites and then compensating it, the Chaser would approach the Target at progressively smaller inter-satellite spacings of 5km, 1.5km, 500m, 225m, 15m and 3m and eventually lead to docking the two spacecraft.”
M. Sanakaran, Director of the U R Rao satellite centre, said that docking should take place between 7 and 10 January.
The PSLV-C60 mission will also carry 24 PS4-Orbital Experiment Modul (POEM-4) Payloads.