Sun Jan 12 01:27:46 UTC 2025: ## ISRO Successfully Completes Crucial SpaDeX Satellite Rendezvous Trial
**Bengaluru, January 12, 2025** – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced a significant milestone in its SpaDeX mission today, successfully completing a trial maneuver bringing the two SpaDeX satellites, SDX01 (Chaser) and SDX02 (Target), within three meters of each other. This follows a postponement earlier this week due to unexpected satellite drift.
The agency, using its X account, reported that the satellites were initially brought to a distance of 15 meters before the closer approach. Images and videos of the satellites nearing each other were also released by ISRO. After the successful trial, the spacecraft were safely repositioned to a greater distance. The agency will analyze the collected data before attempting the actual docking maneuver.
The SpaDeX mission, launched on December 30, 2024, aims to demonstrate rendezvous, docking, and undocking technologies using two small satellites. Successful completion of the docking experiment would make India the fourth nation, after the USA, Russia, and China, to master this crucial space technology. This technology is vital for future ambitious missions, including a crewed lunar mission, lunar sample return, and the establishment of an Indian space station.
The initial docking attempt, originally scheduled for January 7th, was postponed to January 9th and then again due to the unexpected drift detected on January 8th. ISRO successfully mitigated the drift before undertaking today’s successful trial. The date of the full docking experiment is yet to be announced.
First Piper 