India launches its first space docking mission

India launched its first space docking mission on Monday, on an Indian-made rocket, in an attempt to become the fourth country to achieve the advanced technological feat. The mission, called Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX), lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh state at 1630 GMT aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) "workhorse" PSLV rocket. After around 15 minutes, the mission director called the launch successful after the spacecraft reached an altitude of around 470 km. More

(Source: Reuters - Dec 31)