The 'chaser' and 'target' satellites are orbiting close to 500 kilometers above the Earth in an unusual and highly advanced "dogfight" that india is conducting in space. Almost immediately after, in 2024, Chinese defense satellites practiced "dogfights" in low Earth orbits.
 
Similar to the aerial dogfights between fighter jets, dogfighting in space refers to the idea of coordinated, close-range maneuvers between spacecraft. The ambitious SPADEX Mission by the indian Space Research Organization, or isro, has another beneficial extension of the indian effort.  A mission with numerous strategic and societal goals came in smoothly.

According to the isro chief, 50% of the fuel on the two satellites remained after these lengthy docking and undocking procedures. According to the isro chief, the two satellites have over 2.5 kg of fuel apiece thanks to a precise rocket launch and economical orbital management, which helps prolong the mission life.
 
Brigadier (Retd) Anshuman Narang, director and Founder of the independent think organization Atma Nirbhar Soch, praised the endeavor, saying, "ISRO is pushing the right technological frontier through this dogfight in space."  Fortunately, this technology demonstration uses cutting-edge Swadeshi technology to demonstrate peaceful robotization in space.  Today's Atmanirbhar Bharat requires modernization and autonomy through indigenization and intelligentization.  

The experiment involved operating a heater element in one of the satellites through power from the other satellite. The duration of power transfer was approximately 4 minutes and the performance of the satellites was as expected.

In contrast to the first docking attempt, which involved manually exercising an additional hold point at an intersatellite distance of 3m, the second effort involved docking with complete autonomy from an intersatellite distance of 15m till docking.
 
The second docking demonstration was extremely confident since it was preceded by thorough ground simulations and on-orbit trials that incorporated the knowledge learned from the initial docking and undocking efforts.
 
A key milestone in the SPADEX mission has been reached with the demonstration of the fully autonomous second docking and power transfer. This year, on january 16, the first docking was accomplished.
 
After China, Russia, and the United States, isro became the fourth nation to successfully learn docking when it successfully docked two indian satellites in space, orbiting 475 kilometers above Earth.
 
India used the PSLV rocket to launch the SpaDeX mission on december 30 of last year.  Future missions like Chandrayaan-4 and Bhartiya Antariksha Station are made possible by docking technology.


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SIBY JEYYA

04/05/2025 10:16 AM