India's ISRO delays highly anticipated space docking experiment again

(Reuters) - India's space agency ISRO postponed a highly anticipated space docking mission for the second time late Wednesday.

The agency cited an issue arising from excess drift between the satellites, without disclosing a new date for the docking. The technology was originally set to be tested on Jan. 7 local time.

"While making a maneuver to reach 225 m between satellites the drift was found to be more than expected, post non-visibility period", ISRO said on social media platform X.

The mission, called Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX), would make India the fourth country in the world to achieve a feat essential for expanding future deep space exploratory missions.

Launched on Dec. 30 from India's main spaceport, the mission used an Indian-made rocket to deploy satellites into orbit.

The SpaDeX mission will also demonstrate the transfer of electric power between docked spacecraft - a capability vital for applications such as in-space robotics, composite spacecraft control, and payload operations post-undocking.

(Reporting by Chandni Shah and Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

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