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 unmanned docking in space, making India the fourth country to complete the maneuver.

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.

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 successfully docked its two SpaDex satellites in Earth orbit yesterday (Jan. 15), becoming just the fourth country to pull off such a satellite meetup.

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

India postponed by a couple of days on Monday a highly-anticipated space docking experiment that would see it become the fourth country in the world to achieve a feat essential for expanding future deep space exploratory missions.