/connect-gujarat-english/media/media_files/2024/12/24/wjvAOZyFDimoFR8lLqKD.jpeg)
Follow Us
Just as it had started the year, the Indian Space Research Organisation will end it with its key Spadex mission.
The launch of two small satellites to demonstrate docking in space at 9:58 pm on December 30 from the first launch pad at the country’s only spaceport at Sriharikota.
Docking is a process where two satellites are aligned and then joined in space a necessity for missions that the space agency hoped to achieve in the future such as Chandrayaan-4 or setting up the Bharatiya Antariksh Station.
The Spadex mission will see two satellites — SDX01 or Chaser and SDX02 or Target align in the same orbit, reduce distance between each other, join and transfer electrical power between them, and then separate.
After they separate, payloads on board both the satellites will continue to function for two years.
India’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C60 will launch the two 220 kg satellites in a 470 km circular orbit, with the launch vehicle providing a small relative velocity between the two.
Within a day, the two satellites will build-up a distance of around 10 to 20 km between themselves.
Meaning both the satellites will continue moving with the same velocity at a separation of 20 km this step is known as the ‘far rendezvous’.
The Chaser satellite will then continue to approach the Target satellite, progressively reducing the distance between them to 5km, 1.5 km, 500 m, 225 m, 15 m, 3m, and then docking together.