New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu hailed ISRO's successful PSLV-C60 mission, calling it a 'milestone' in India's space exploration journey and a step towards advancing human spaceflight capabilities.

In a post on Twitter, Naidu said, “Congratulations to @isro on the success of PSLV-C60 mission from Sriharikota, it is another milestone in space! SpaDeX (Space Docking Experiment) is a pioneer mission to establish India's capability in orbital docking, an important step towards future human spaceflight and satellite service.

“This success takes India closer to its ambitious goals like Chandrayaan-4, return of lunar samples and the Indian Space Station,” Naidu said.

In a significant milestone, ISRO on Monday launched PSLV-C60 with SpaDeX and innovative payload from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

ISRO's year-end mission is historic as it seeks the rare feat of docking or merging or linking together two satellites in space. This project has been named “Space Docking Experiment” (SpaDeX). The performance of its first phase is normal.

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The SpaDeX mission is a cost-effective technology demonstration mission to demonstrate in-space docking using two small spacecraft launched by PSLV. The primary objective of the Spadex mission is to develop and demonstrate the technology required for rendezvous, docking, and undocking of two small spacecraft (SDX01, which is the chaser, and SDX02, which is the nominal target) in low Earth orbit.

Only a few countries have mastered this technological challenge and the indigenous technology used for this mission is called the “Indian Docking System”. Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh had earlier said, “The success of this mission is crucial for India's future space ambitions.”

The docking technology is important for long-term missions like “Chandrayaan-4” and the planned Indian space station. It is also important for the eventual manned “Gaganyaan” mission.

(with agency input)