After successfully demonstrating space docking this year, Indian Space Research Organisation Chief Dr V Narayanan said the agency is planning to conduct another space-docking experiment. The Spadex-2 may be launched in the coming three years, subject to government approval.

The space agency is planning a proposal, which will be shared with the government soon. Once the approval is granted, it is expected to take another 18 months to complete the preparation.

India recently became only the fourth country in the world to successfully perform space docking with its Spadex experiment, which launched on December 30, 2024. The mission involved the launch of two satellites on a single rocket, which were docked and undocked in low Earth orbit amid challenging conditions.

“They are currently undocked and drifting independently of each other in space. The good thing is that we still have 50 per cent propellant left and further experiments are planned," added the senior scientist.
Spadex-1 was fraught with challenges, which the space agency overcame and completed the experiment. The first docking was done on January 16, followed by undocking on March 13. The second docking was done on April 20,  with subsequent undocking on April 25 following power transfer between the spacecrafts.
The technology is critical for the upcoming Chandrayaan-4 series, scheduled to be launched in 2028, which will require multiple docking and undocking in space.

Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Space, who was also present, said, “There are bound to be challenges. But India’s record is far better than other countries when it comes to attempting new technological feats in space. Even though we didn’t succeed with our first lunar landing, we aced it with our second attempt in 2023."

Giving an update on the Gaganyaan, the ISRO Chairman said the space agency is also preparing for the much-anticipated second test-vehicle flight (TV-D2) of Gaganyaan.

A significant milestone for upcoming human spaceflight, the test Vehicle-D2 (TV-D2) mission has been designed to simulate an abort scenario and demonstrate the Gaganyaan Crew Escape System. The mission includes sea recovery operations for the Crew Module, mimicking procedures planned for India’s first human spaceflight.

Gaganyaan First Uncrewed Flight Later This Year

The first uncrewed flight of Gaganyaan is scheduled in the last quarter of 2025, most likely December. “We will be carrying three uncrewed test flights, and two crewed test flights before we undertake the final human spaceflight," said ISRO chief Dr V Narayanan.

India’s most ambitious space mission – Gaganyaan – will take three Indian astronauts to the Low Earth Orbit at an altitude of 400 km and bring them safely back to Earth. The space agency has already shortlisted the astronauts – all test pilots from the Indian Air Force who have been undergoing rigorous training for the last two years.

One of the shortlisted candidates, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, a decorated pilot in the Indian Air Force, will also be flying aboard the Axiom Mission-4 scheduled to take off from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, on May 29. With this, he will also become the first Indian to travel to the International Space Station (ISS).

Among the major missions lined up from May to July, ISRO will launch the PSLV-C61 mission carrying the state-of-the-art EOS-09 satellite. Equipped with a C-band synthetic aperture radar, EOS-09 will be capable of capturing high-resolution images of Earth’s surface under all weather conditions, day or night.

June will see the highly anticipated launch of the NISAR satellite aboard the GSLV-F16. This NASA-ISRO collaboration aims to study Earth’s ecosystems and natural hazards through dual-frequency radar data, combining NASA’s L-band payloads with ISRO’s S-band contributions. The LVM3-M5 mission, scheduled for July, will cater to a commercial contract with AST SpaceMobile Inc., USA, launching BlueBird Block-2 satellites under NewSpace India Limited’s commercial program.