NEW DELHI, Dec 30: For the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), 2025 began with a ‘space handshake’ and ended with a thunderous roar from the ground.
From a delicate autonomous space docking experiment to the soaring launch of ‘Bahubali’, which placed the heaviest satellite ever lifted from Indian soil into Earth’s orbit, 2025 marked a quantum leap for India’s space programme.
These missions laid the groundwork for more ambitious goals, including the construction of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), bringing lunar samples back to Earth, and sending humans to space from Indian soil.
On January 16, 2025, ISRO’s SpaDeX mission achieved a crucial technological milestone, metaphorically described as a “handshake in space”. Two independent small spacecraft, named Chase and Target, orbiting at an altitude of over 470 km above Earth, successfully located each other, manoeuvred with precision, and docked autonomously in low Earth orbit without any human intervention.
Despite initial hiccups and delays, the mission placed India among a select group of spacefaring nations that have demonstrated in-space rendezvous and docking capabilities. With this success, India joined Russia, the United States and China as the fourth country to demonstrate a technology considered essential for human spaceflight, space stations and deep-space exploration. The mission involved launching the two spacecraft separately and later guiding them to meet and dock in the hostile space environment, entirely autonomously.
In the months that followed, between March and April, ISRO took the experiment a step further. The two satellites undocked, docked again and demonstrated power transfer between them, all in fully autonomous mode. These complex manoeuvres in outer space showcased India’s growing mastery of spacecraft guidance, navigation and control systems, underlining the country’s readiness for future crewed missions, lunar exploration and long-duration human presence aboard the Bharatiya Antariksh Station-India’s first space station, scheduled for completion by 2035.
Among the suite of missions undertaken independently by ISRO this year was the launch of the US-made communication satellite BlueBird Block-2, weighing a massive 6,100 kg. The mission was carried out using ISRO’s heavy-lift rocket ‘Bahubali’, the designated launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme. On December 24, the rocket lifted off from Sriharikota carrying the heaviest payload ever launched from India and placed it into low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 2,000 km, marking a critical rehearsal for future human spaceflight missions.
India’s maiden human spaceflight mission is expected to carry even heavier payloads, nearly 8,000 kg, including the crew and service module, which will accommodate three astronauts.
Beyond building confidence in launching humans into space, ISRO also demonstrated its capability to return the astronauts to Earth safely. During the months of August to December, the space agency carried out a series of parachute tests to facilitate the safe re-entry of the crew module of the Gaganyaan into Earth’s atmosphere.
The latest in this test series, the Drogue Parachute Deployment Tests, evaluated the behaviour of drogue parachutes under extreme and varying flight conditions. Conducted on December 18 and 19 at the Rail Track Rocket Sled (RTRS) facility in Chandigarh, the tests simulated the crew module’s descent during atmospheric re-entry.
The sequence began with the deployment of two apex cover separation parachutes, which removed the protective cover of the parachute compartment. The next phase included the use of two drogue parachutes to slow the falling crew module as the scenario simulated re-entry. These drogue parachutes were later jettisoned, leading to the activation of the three main parachutes, which slowed the crew module to make the splashdown safe.
Taken together, ISRO’s successes in 2025 represent a decisive shift from experimentation to execution. The demonstrated capability in autonomous space docking, heavy-lift launch and crew recovery systems has strengthened India’s readiness for human spaceflight while laying critical foundations for future lunar and deep-space missions.
As ISRO inches closer to the Gaganyaan launch and advances preparation for Chandrayaan’s next phase, the successes of 2025 underpin India’s emergence as a confident end-to-end space-faring nation capable of designing, launching, operating, and returning safely from space complex missions. (UNI)
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