New Delhi:
India will be looking forward to a heavenly handshake between its two satellites in the New Year even as it sets its eyes on launching the most expensive Earth observation spacecraft in partnership with NASA.
ISRO’s first satellite docking experiment (SpaDeX) is expected to take place on January 7 and is expected to put India among a select group of countries that have mastered this complex technology.
“This is certainly the first such mission with smaller satellites. We will scale these up with heavier satellites and this docking technology will help us set up the Bhartiya Antariksh Station and subsequent missions to it,” Jitendra Singh, Minister of Science and Technology, told IPS. reporters here.
“ISRO’s SpaDeX mission marks the beginning of a new era in space exploration, showcasing India’s technological prowess and ambition. The ‘docking’ capability will enable future missions to achieve unimaginable results through transfer of payloads in space, which will be a miracle of sorts and a testimony of ‘Viksit Bharat’,” Mr Singh said.
He said that in the new year, ISRO will launch the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite, billed as the most expensive satellite of its kind, by March.
The new year will see the 100th launch from Sriharikota when the GSLV will launch the NVS-02 satellite for navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) services in January.
The first of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV), built by industry consortium HAL-L&T, will launch a technology demonstration satellite integrating the high-thrust electric propulsion system in the first quarter, which will be followed by a commercial mission of LVM3 for a international customer.
Gaganyaan’s first unmanned mission, comprising the Vyommitra robot, is also expected to be launched in the first quarter of the new year.
“We will have our manned spaceflight – Gaganyaan – by the end of 2025 or early 2026,” Singh said, adding that the mission depended on the success of the unmanned missions.
ISRO also plans to conduct a test of the Crew Escape System for the Gaganyaan mission before March.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)