India’s two SpaDeX experimental spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 12 October after completing a series of orbital docking tests, the country’s space agency has confirmed. The update, dated 23 October, closes the operational account of a mission that tested how two satellites can find one another, join together, transfer power and separate again while in orbit.
SpaDeX-A reached its reported impact point over the South Pacific at about 16:48 UTC. SpaDeX-B reached its reported final impact point over the North Atlantic at about 23:36 UTC, later the same day. The agency said both spacecraft remained healthy until their final telemetry frames were received.
Mission ends after orbital decay
The account describes the re-entry as the final stage of the mission’s post-operational phase. Fuel in both satellites had been exhausted and their orbits then decayed progressively. Two moderate geomagnetic storms, on 4 and 11 October, accelerated that decay, according to the agency’s update.
The confirmation does not describe a new launch or a fresh docking attempt. Instead, it records the end of the two-spacecraft mission and provides the timing and broad ocean locations of the final events. No claim about effects on people or property is made in the update.
What SpaDeX tested
The Space Docking Experiment, known as SpaDeX, began with the launch of the two small spacecraft aboard the PSLV-C60 mission on 30 December 2024. They were placed in a 470-kilometre circular orbit. The mission was built to demonstrate autonomous rendezvous, docking and undocking between satellites in low Earth orbit.
Rendezvous is the controlled process of bringing spacecraft into the same orbital path and closing the distance between them. For SpaDeX, the two vehicles were designed to approach in stages before docking. The 2024 mission plan described progressively shorter separations, followed by docking, rigidisation, an electrical power-transfer test and later separation for payload operations.
During the mission, the agency said, the spacecraft completed vertical and radial docking, composite control, power transfer, undocking and payload operations. It also said the pair successfully demonstrated further circumnavigation. Those results matter because docking is a core capability when separate launches must work together towards a shared mission objective.
Technology for future missions
The original mission plan described SpaDeX as a technology demonstrator rather than an operational satellite service. It stated that docking capability is relevant to India’s longer-term ambitions involving lunar work, sample-return missions and the planned Bharatiya Antariksh Station. It also identified in-space robotics as a future application for electrical power transfer between docked spacecraft.
Each SpaDeX spacecraft was designed to be about 220 kilograms. Their small size made precise manoeuvring especially important, because the satellites had to establish their relative position and velocity, communicate with one another and reduce their separation before the final docking sequence. The mission used a range of purpose-built rendezvous and docking systems, including sensors and an inter-satellite communication link.
The 23 October update therefore marks a defined operational endpoint for the experiment. It confirms that both spacecraft completed the stated core demonstrations before re-entering on 12 October, while distinguishing that outcome from the separate work needed to apply docking technology in later missions.
