ISRO Docking Test Satellite Approaches Reentry
SDX01, one of two spacecraft in ISRO's Space Docking Experiment, has descended to roughly 239 km and is nearing reentry. Space-Track's latest prediction places nominal reentry at 07:23 UTC on 12 October 2026, but a 42.5-day window leaves the impact location undetermined. The satellite's mean altitude fell by 110.5 km over 78.3 days, with the daily descent rate increasing as drag grows.
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[paragraph] No extra. Need maybe blank line between paragraphs? It says two short paragraphs. We can have blank line between. Under 120 words total. Let's final. Ensure no source phrasing copied. "Space Docking Experiment" proper. "PSLV-C60" proper. "Sriharikota" proper. "IMS-1" proper. "high-resolution camera" maybe source phrase. Could change to "camera for detailed stills and video" but source says high-resolution camera for still images and video. To avoid copying, say "an imaging payload for stills and video." Good. Let's adjust. P2: "Its rendezvous equipment included laser ranging, proximity, imaging, accelerometer and star-tracker sensors, plus an imaging payload for stills and video." That's original. Count maybe similar. Let's recalc final. EXPANDED P1: SDX01, also SPADEX-A, was one half of ISRO's Space Docking Experiment. It launched with SDX02 on 30 Dec 2024 aboard PSLV-C60 from Sriharikota. The pair docked on 16 Jan 2025, a milestone that placed India among four nations t