Desk:Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief V. Narayanan shared good news on Saturday, stating that there are no issues with ISRO’s first space docking mission (SPACEX), and it is progressing step by step. He dismissed reports published by some media outlets regarding technical issues. Speaking to PTI-Bhasha at the 15th biennial Aero India International Seminar 2025, Narayanan said, “There is no malfunction, it has been docked. We are progressing step by step. We are studying and planning to conduct several experiments.”
On January 16, ISRO successfully completed the space docking experiment (SPACEX) and announced that the control of two satellites as a single object was successfully maintained after docking. In this mission, the NVS-02 navigation satellite was successfully placed into the desired geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).
However, on February 2, ISRO released an update stating that the orbit raising maneuver could not be conducted to place the satellite in the specified orbital position, as the valves required to release oxidizer for thrusting did not open.
Some reports recently claimed that technical issues could arise in the space docking process as two spacecraft – SDX-01 and SDX-02 – still need to be “undocked.” But Narayanan previously mentioned that the space agency is still reviewing the undocking process, and it might take some time.
According to ISRO, the SPACEX mission is a cost-effective technology demonstration mission using two small spacecraft to showcase space docking, launched by the PSLV rocket. Space docking technology is essential when multiple rockets need to be launched to achieve shared mission objectives.