ISRO Gears Up For Space Docking Mission

Docking technology is crucial for sending people and cargo to space stations.

As a part of India's mission to have its own space station, aerospace and defence player Ananth Technologies Private Ltd has integrated two 400 kg satellites for the Indian Space Research Organisation, a top company official said.

This is the first time ISRO has awarded such a project to a private industry partner, the company official added.

"These are twin satellites called Space Docking (Spadex) satellites. The purpose is to achieve 'docking in space' a prior activity for planning moon landing by astronauts and to plan for the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (Indian space station)," Dr Subba Rao Pavuluri, Chairman, Ananth Technologies, said.

"We have been manufacturing electronic subsystems for ISRO since 2000 and have been an integral part of every Indian space programme over the last two decades," Dr Pavuluri added.

The assembly, integration and testing of the two satellites were conducted at the company's 10,000 square metre facility in Bengaluru.

On October 18, 2024, a ceremony celebrating the successful completion and delivery of the satellites was held at the facility.

The project involved over 100 highly trained engineers and technicians, making it the most sophisticated satellite integration project undertaken by a private sector company in India to date.

The satellites will be orbited by ISRO's rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) later this year and early next year.

Once they are in space, the two satellites will be guided to dock/join together to become one.

Docking technology is crucial for sending people and cargo to space stations.

Last month the Cabinet approved the building of the first unit of the Bharatiya Anatriksh Station by extending the scope of the Gaganyaan -- India's human space mission -- programme.

Approval by the Cabinet was given for development of the first module of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS-1) and undertake missions to demonstrate and validate various technologies for building and operating the BAS.

The Cabinet also approved revising the scope and funding of the Gaganyaan programme to include new developments for BAS and precursor missions, and additional requirements to meet the ongoing Gaganyaan programme.

'The Gaganyaan programme will be a national effort led by ISRO in collaboration with industry, academia and other national agencies as stakeholders. The programme will be implemented through the established project management mechanism within ISRO,' the government said.

'The target is to develop and demonstrate critical technologies for long duration human space missions,' the government said.

'To achieve this goal, ISRO will undertake four missions under the ongoing Gaganyaan programme by 2026 and development of the first module of BAS and four missions for demonstration and validation of various technologies for BAS by December 2028.'

Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com