No glitches in SpaDex, we are going step by step: ISRO chief

Bengaluru, Feb 8 (PTI) ISRO Chairman V Narayanan on Saturday said there were no glitches in the space agency’s maiden space docking mission, Spadex, as reported in a section of media and that it was going step by step.

“No glitches, right now it is docked. We are going step by step. We are studying and then we are planning to do a lot of experiments,” Narayanan, Secretary, Department of Space, told PTI on the sidelines of the 15th Biennial Edition of Aero India International Seminar, 2025, here.

On January 16, ISRO successfully performed the docking of satellites as part of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) and the space agency also announced that post docking, control of two satellites as a single object was successful. In this mission, NVS-02 navigation satellite was successfully injected into the intended Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.

Although on February 2, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) issued an update stating that the orbit raising operations towards positioning the satellite to the designated orbital slot could not be carried out as the valves for admitting the oxidizer to fire the thrusters for orbit raising did not open.

Some reports had recently claimed that space docking could be experiencing technical issues as the two spacecraft — SDX-01 and SDX-02,“ are yet to undock.

But Narayanan had said earlier too that the space agency was still conducting a review of the undocking process and that the move could take a while.

According to ISRO, the SpaDeX mission is a cost-effective technology demonstrator mission for the demonstration of in-space docking using two small spacecraft that was launched by a PSLV rocket.

In space, docking technology is essential when multiple rocket launches are required to achieve common mission objectives.

This experiment is crucial for ISRO’s future missions, such as the Bharatiya Antariksh Station and landing of an astronaut on the moon.