Link to article: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8j89k02py0o
The Indian space agency, Isro, had for the first time conducted space docking by joining together two small crafts in space. On December 30, the mission called SpaDeX (Space Docking Experiment) blasted off from the Sriharikota launch pad in southern India. Two spacecraft launched on a single rocket which separated in space. The docking process, originally scheduled for January 7th, occurred early on Thursday morning; making India the fourth country with such technology after the United States, Russia, and China.
During this mission, the first seed germination was demonstrated. Isro tweeted a video that said, “Cowpea sprouts have unveiled their first leaves in space in microgravity.” This is an incredible milestone in space travel as it shows us that astronauts can now grow their food on long-duration missions. There is also a demonstration that involved a robotic arm which we’ve seen in a video on Isro’s X account grabbing onto space debris. This arm could play a crucial role in building space stations as it can capture things and put them in their place. It is planned to be used on India’s next space venture to the moon to collect lunar soil samples.
This incredible mission by India’s space agency is a massive stepping stone for all countries and their space missions. The introduction of the robotic arm will allow for all future space missions of any country to be more efficient. It will hopefully be the beginning of space stations being constructed and an increase in extraterrestrial studies. The discovery of plant growth on the craft was another incredible discovery as it shows that plant life will be able to sustain life in space. This means we could now prolong the amount of time that we send scientists and astronauts to space.
This could also be viewed from a hegemonic realist perspective, as India is climbing up towards greater power in the world. India has made it clear that they want the world to know that they are now one of four countries with the power to send a rocket to space and be able to bring that rocket back down to earth safely.
It is likely that we will see the United States’s NASA or China’s space force begin plans to launch rockets into space and engage in newer advancements to “one-up” India’s advancement in their space ventures. This is because the United States and China are sitting relatively high in the global arena with loads of power in their hands; if they allow this to go without responding to the event then other countries will be able to see India as a growing power.