India on Thursday became the fourth country to successfully achieve an unmanned docking in space, a feat seen as pivotal for future missions as New Delhi cements its place as a global space power.

India became the world's fourth nation on Thursday to achieve the feat of space docking, a technological milestone that underscores its ambitions to expand its share of a rapidly growing $400-billion global space market.

The Indian Space Research Organization successfully conducted an uncrewed docking in space, making India the fourth country to complete the maneuver.

The two satellites of the Indian Space Research Organization 's (ISRO) Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDex, successfully met up in Earth orbit yesterday (Jan. 15), making India just the fourth country to pull off an in-space docking. The other three are all heavy hitters in the space game: the United States, Russia and China.

India became the world's fourth nation to achieve the feat of space docking, a technological milestone that underscores its ambitions to expand its share of a rapidly growing $400-billion global space market.

India docked two satellites in space Thursday, a key milestone for the country's dreams of a space station and a manned moon mission, the space agency said.

Indian space agency Isro has for the first time successfully conducted space docking by joining together two small craft in space. The technology is essential for the country's future ambition to build an Indian space station and put a person on the Moon.

Since then, Russia and China have also achieved docking many times. India, therefore, is the fourth country.

The Indian Space Research Organization's twin SpaDeX satellites will try to dock in orbit on tonight at around 9:30 p.m. EST (0230 Jan. 9 GMT/0800 IST).

India has become the fourth country in the world to successfully achieve an unmanned docking in space following the US, Russia and China, as two small spacecraft completed the docking maneuver in low-Earth orbit on Thursday,

Tirupati: India broke through into a select club of the US, Russia and China when the Indian Space Research Organisation docked two satellites in space, achieving mastery in the critical technology needed for setting up of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, among others, early on Thursday.