The SpaDeX mission, which took flight on 30 December last year, was originally supposed to have displayed the docking and undocking of the 2 spacecraft in 1st week of January.
India is now the 4th country, after US, Russia & China, to have developed & tested space docking technology. SpaDeX findings are expected to help India achieve future space goals.
According to ISRO, the SpaDeX mission is a cost-effective technology demonstrator mission for the demonstration of in-space docking using two small spacecraft that was launched by PSLV.
ISRO said satellites were successfully moved within 15m of each other & then closer to 3m before being moved back to safe distance. Docking experiments are scheduled for 7 & 9 January.
Key SpaDeX experiment planned for 7 January. A successful demonstration will add India to an elite list—US, Russia, EU and China—to have performed docking in space.
Ventures by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan illustrate how the race for REE security is accelerating, powered by both geopolitical tension and industrial strategy.
ThePrint had previously reported that India & Russia are talking about 5 more regiments of the S-400, but no contracts are to be signed during the Russian president's visit.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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