DC Edit | For Isro, sky is not the limit

Isro has described the SpaDeX project in which the docking of two satellites was performed as a cost-effective demonstrator to showcase in-space docking using small spacecraft. The success of the experiment holds the key to exploration future goals that includes manned flights to space as well as building space stations. For India, this incremental step to wider space exploration means a lot as it adds to Isro’s capabilities in handling complex space projects like manned flights from which astronauts can smoothly transfer between vehicles safely in space, stay in space stations or, in the future, even colonise the moon, an ambition that many dreamers about space imagine would serve the goal of preserving the human race. The two satellites that were launched in December 2024 and docked now in a third attempt were made by private entities, which means that the Indian space programme is being further fuelled by private enterprise, and all in a cost-effective manner that is a wonder to such heavily funded organisations like Nasa. As Isro’s new chairman pointed out, the technological achievement simply adds to the confidence with which the space player is looking forward to bigger missions after having launched Aryabhatta, India’s first satellite 50 years ago.