Posted: Sat, Jan 4, 2025, 8:37 AM ET (1337 GMT)
The penultimate flight of 2024 was an Indian launch of a docking technology mission. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off Monday at 11:30 am EST (1630 GMT) and deployed the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) into low Earth orbit. SpaDeX features two 220-kilogram satellites that will drift apart and then approach to dock with one another, testing docking technologies needed for a future lunar sample return mission and India's proposed Bharatiya Antariksh Station space station. The PSLV's upper stage also carried 24 hosted payloads, 14 from the Indian space agency ISRO and 10 from other organizations.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  Reuters article
•  The Hindu article
•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  Hindustan Times article