SDX02, the Target. Images courtesy of ISRO.
On April 20th, the ISRO successfully demo’d the docking of the SpaDex satellites (SDX 01 & SDX 02) .
Subsequently, power transfer from SDX 02 to SDX 01 satellite, and vice versa, was also exercised and accomplished on April21st.. The experiment involved operating a heater element in one of the satellites via 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 15 meters until docking, whereas in the first docking attempt, an additional hold point was manually exercised at an inter-satellite distance of 3 meters.
The second docking experiment was preceded by detailed ground simulations and on-orbit trials that incorporated the experience that was gained from first docking and undocking experiments.
The demonstration of the fully autonomous second docking along with power transfer marks the completion of an important milestone in the SPADEX mission.