Amit Shah hails ISRO says, "Bharat paces to become the fourth nation to master space docking"

PSLV-C60. (Pic/ISRO)

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the successful launch of the SpaDeX Mission, calling it a groundbreaking achievement that furthers India's progress towards becoming the fourth country to master space docking technology, ANI cited.

In a post on social media platform X, Union Minister Amit Shah said," Bharat paces to become the fourth nation to master space docking. He said Kudos to Team @isro on the successful launch of #SpaDeX Mission."

"This is a grand success that opens a new path for Bharat in space docking technology and strengthens its role as a global leader in space. All my best wishes to our geniuses for the journey ahead," the post added on X.

Meanwhile, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday launched PSLV-C60 with SpaDeX and innovative payloads from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.

The mission was launched precisely at 10:00:15 pm from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

As per ANI, ISRO's year-end mission is historic as it seeks the rare feat of docking or merging or joining together two satellites in space. The project has been named "Space Docking Experiment" (SpaDeX).

The performance at the first stage is normal.The SpaDeX mission is a low-cost technology demonstrator mission that uses two small spacecraft launched by PSLV to demonstrate in-space docking.

The main goal of the SpaDeX mission is to create and test the technology required for the rendezvous, docking, and undocking of two small spacecraft (SDX02, the nominal Target, and SDX01, the Chaser) in a low-Earth circular orbit, ANI cited.

The "Bharatiya Docking System" is the indigenous technology used for this objective; only a few countries have successfully mastered the technological challenge.

"The success of this mission is vital for India's future space ambitions," Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh had said earlier. Docking technology is key for long-term missions like "Chandrayaan-4" and the planned Indian space station. It is also crucial for the eventual manned "Gaganyaan" mission.

(With ANI inputs)