ISRO taking steps to protect India's space assets

The Indian space agency is taking necessary measures to protect the country's space assets from intentional and accidental close approaches by other space objects, said Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh.

He also said around 60 startups have registered with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), quite a few of them are dealing with projects related to space debris management.

The other startup proposals vary from nano-satellite, launch vehicle, ground systems, research and others, Singh said after inaugurating ISRO System for Safe & Sustainable Operation (IS4OM) at ISRO Control Centre, in Bengaluru on Monday.

According to Singh, Space Situational Awareness activities have many strategic implications such as identifying and monitoring other operational spacecraft with close approaches, having overpass over Indian region, intentional manoeuvres with suspicious motives and re-entry within the Indian region.

The IS4OM facility will enable India in achieving its Space Situational Awareness goals by providing a comprehensive and timely information of the space environment to users.

This multi-domain awareness platform will bring prompt, accurate and efficient information on on-orbit collision, fragmentation, atmospheric re-entry risk, space based strategic information, hazardous asteroids and space weather forecast, Singh said.

According to S. Somanath, Secretary, Department of Space, infrastructure for Space Weather monitoring and forecast plays a critical role in protecting space based as well as ground-based infrastructure from critical Solar activities.

On an equal footing, detection and prevention of asteroid impacts are essential for human welfare. Vision of IS40M towards space weather services and planetary defence initiatives are also to be important areas of SSA, he said.