ISRO achieves historic 'undocking' of SpaDeX satellites, paving way for future space missions
Trending | SCIENCE & TECH | World: ISRO achieves a milestone with successful undocking of SpaDeX satellites SDX1 and SDX2, setting the stage for future ambitious space missions.
India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), on Thursday (March 13) achieved the remarkable accomplishment of de-docking or undocking in space. The space agency successfully carried out undocking of its SpaDeX satellites -SDX01 and SDX02-, paving the way for future missions.
Congratulating ISRO on X, Union MoS (Ind. Charge) Science & Technology; Earth Sciences, Jitendra Singh noted that it was “heartening for every Indian.”
“SPADEX Satellites accomplished the unbelievable De-Docking,” he wrote, adding “This paves the way for smooth conduct of ambitious future missions including the Bharatiya Antriksha Station, Chandrayaan 4 & Gaganyaan.”
What is undocking?
India successfully docked the two satellites-SDX01 and SDX02 in space on 16 January 2025. The two satellites were manoeuvred together, a “precision” process which resulted in a "successful spacecraft capture", said ISRO at the time, calling it a "historic moment".
Now, the two satellites have been undocked or de-docked. This means they have been separated. This has been done so that two satellites “start the operation of their respective payloads for the expected mission life of up to two years,” as per a mission brief published on the ISRO website.
What are the satellites’ missions?
The spacecrafts which have now been separated will be used for the following application missions:
“A High-Resolution Camera (HRC) with a 4.5 m IGFOV and a swath of 9.2 x 9.2 km (snapshot mode) and 9.2 x 4.6 km (video mode) from a 450 km altitude is mounted in SDX01. This is a miniature version of the surveillance camera developed by SAC/ISRO.”
“A Miniature Multi-Spectral Payload (MMX) is mounted in SDX02, developed by SAC/ISRO. This has four VNIR bands (B1/B2/B3/B4) at 450 nm to 860 nm and a 25 m IGFOV with a swath of 100 km from a 450 km altitude. The imaging is useful for natural resource monitoring and vegetation studies,” it added.
“A Radiation Monitor (RadMon) payload is mounted in SDX02, which will measure radiation dose encountered in space. This will help in generation of a radiation database for future Total Ionization Dosimeter (TID) and Single Event Upset (SEU) measurements for space science studies, with applications in human spaceflight.”
(With inputs from agencies)
