SDX02 was one of ISRO's two SpaDeX satellites, which carried out India's first docking in space on 16 January 2025. It acted as the target and carried a multispectral camera and a radiation monitor; it re-entered on 12 October 2026.
Re-entered Earth's atmosphere on 12 October 2026, according to the public satellite catalogue.
SpaDeX (Space Docking Experiment) was a low-cost ISRO mission to prove that India can make two spacecraft find each other in orbit, join together, and separate again. ISRO needs this docking skill for later goals: a sample return from the Moon, an Indian on the Moon, and building the Bharatiya Antariksh Station from parts launched separately.
The two satellites, SDX01 and SDX02, are about 220 kg each and are built on an extended Microsat bus. Their docking ports are identical (androgynous), so either one can act as the active partner.
PSLV-C60 released both satellites from Sriharikota on 30 December 2024 into a circular orbit of about 470 km at 55° inclination. A small difference in their release speed let them drift apart, and then thruster firings brought them back step by step: 5 km, 1.5 km, 500 m, 225 m, 15 m and 3 m.
A first attempt planned for 9 January 2025 was postponed when the satellites drifted more than expected. The first docking came on 16 January 2025. Undocking followed on 13 March 2025. On 20 April 2025 the satellites docked a second time, this time fully on their own from 15 m, and on 21 April they passed electric power to each other for about four minutes.
SDX02 was nominally the target, the satellite that waits to be docked with. It carries a Miniature Multi-Spectral payload with four visible and near-infrared bands, 25 m resolution and a 100 km swath for vegetation and resource studies, and a Radiation Monitor that records the dose met in orbit, useful for human spaceflight. ISRO reports that its final impact was over the North Atlantic Ocean at about 23:36 UTC on 12 October 2026.
With their fuel used up, both orbits decayed. Two moderate geomagnetic storms, on 4 and 11 October 2026, sped up the fall. Both satellites re-entered the atmosphere on 12 October 2026, and ISRO kept receiving telemetry until the end.