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 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.

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.