India is conducting a rare and very sophisticated "dogfight" in space between a 'chaser' and 'target' satellite orbiting nearly 500 kilometers above the Earth. This comes close on the heels of Chinese defence satellites practising "dogfights" in low Earth orbits in 2024.
Dogfighting in space refers to the concept of coordinated, close-range maneuvers between spacecraft, similar to the aerial dogfights between fighter jets.
The Indian attempt is one more useful extension of the ambitious SPADEX Mission by the Indian Space Research Organization or ISRO. A mission with many societal and strategic objectives rolled in seamlessly.
Two Indian satellites - zipping through space at 28,800 kilometers per hour, or at a speed which is 28 times faster than cruising a commercial passenger jet and 10 times the speed of a bullet - are autonomously participating in this precision flight pattern orchestrated by the ISRO. Both satellites have been conducting rendezvous and proximity tactics.
This current "dogfight" was preceded by an extended but manually conducted circumambulation or parikrama between the chaser and target satellite a few weeks ago.
In the SPADEX mission, India has already "successfully demonstrated docking and undocking twice over", ISRO Chairman Dr V Narayanan told NDTV.
After these extended docking and undocking maneuvers, the ISRO chief said, there was still 50% of the fuel left on the two satellites.
A precision rocket launch and frugal orbital management has left the two satellites with nearly 2.5 kilograms of fuel each, said the ISRO chief, adding that this helps extend the mission life.
Praising the effort, Brigadier (Retd) Anshuman Narang, Director and Founder Atma Nirbhar Soch, an independent think tank, said, "Through this dogfight in space, ISRO is pushing the right technological frontier. It's a good thing that this technology demonstration of peaceful robotisation in space through advanced swadeshi technology. This space modernization and autonomisation through indigenisation and intelligentisation is what today's atmanirbhar Bharat needs."
The officer, a space expert, keeps a close watch on China's space developments.
Incidentally, China recently demonstrated this huge capability using several satellites and even the US Space Force expressed concern that USA's rivals were closing the technology gap.
Earlier, the ISRO successfully demonstrated the docking of the SPADEX satellites (SDX 01 & SDX 02) for the second time on April 20.
Subsequently, power transfer from SDX 02 to SDX 01 satellite as well as vice versa was also exercised and accomplished on April 21.
The experiment involved operating a heater element in one of the satellites through power from the other satellite. The duration of power transfer was approximately 4 minutes and the performance of the satellites was as expected.
In the second docking attempt, the docking was completed with full autonomy from an inter-satellite distance of 15m till docking, whereas in the first docking attempt, an additional hold point was manually exercised at an inter-satellite distance of 3m.
The second docking experiment was preceded by detailed ground simulations and on-orbit trials incorporating the experience gained from first docking and undocking experiments, thereby providing immense confidence for the second docking demonstration.
The demonstration of the fully autonomous second docking along with power transfer marks the completion of an important milestone in the SPADEX mission.
The first docking was achieved on January 16 this year.
ISRO successfully docked two Indian satellites in space orbiting at 475 kilometers above Earth, becoming the fourth country after Russia, USA and China to have successfully learnt docking.
India launched the SpaDeX mission on December 30 last year using the PSLV rocket. Docking is an enabling technology for future missions like Chandrayaan-4 and Bhartiya Antariksha Station.
