Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
India’s satellites are under watch, and not just from the ground. High above Earth, a quiet but significant shift is under way.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the Ministry of Defence are working on a plan to station specialised satellites in orbit whose sole job is to protect India’s most valuable space assets. Think of them as bodyguards, ones that travel at 28,000 kilometres per hour.
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WHAT TRIGGERED INDIA’S SPACE BODYGUARD PROGRAMME?
The alarm bells rang in mid-2024. A spacecraft from a neighbouring country came within 1 kilometre of an Isro satellite operating at an altitude of 500 to 600 kilometres in low-Earth orbit, Bloomberg reported.
The Indian satellite was performing tasks with potential military applications, such as mapping and monitoring ground objects.
The unusually close approach may have been a deliberate show of strength, possibly designed to test the capabilities of the neighbouring country, the Bloomberg report said.
WHAT ARE SPACE BODYGUARD SATELLITES?
A space bodyguard satellite is a specialised spacecraft designed to shadow and protect India’s high-value satellites in orbit.
These escort satellites would hover close to important Indian space assets, monitor their surroundings continuously, and intervene if another object approaches too closely.
They are expected to carry sensors for surveillance, propulsion systems for rapid repositioning, and possibly countermeasure technologies to deter or disable threats.
The idea is straightforward: if something gets too close to an Indian satellite, the bodyguard steps in.
HOW MUCH IS INDIA SPENDING ON SPACE BODYGUARDS?
India’s satellite protection project is part of a broader government effort to develop more security assets in orbit, valued at approximately Rs 27,000 crore (around $3.2 billion).
The programme includes plans to launch around 50 dedicated surveillance satellites. The first bodyguard satellites could be operational as early as 2026, with Isro working alongside private startups to speed up development, Bloomberg reported.
“We do not have such in-orbit tracking capability on a 24×7 basis, but some of the startups are working on it,” Bloomberg quoted former Isro director Sudheer Kumar N.
WHAT IS ISRO ALREADY DOING TO PROTECT ITS SATELLITES?
Isro’s System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS4OM), the agency’s dedicated unit for monitoring and protecting Indian satellites in orbit, sifted through more than 53,000 warnings about objects getting dangerously close to Indian satellites in 2024.
These warnings were issued by the Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) of the United States Space Command, which currently runs the world’s most comprehensive catalogue of objects in orbit and routinely shares threat alerts with space agencies around the world, including Isro.
Of those, 10 required collision avoidance manoeuvres: six in low-Earth orbit and four in geostationary orbit, according to Isro’s Indian Space Situational Assessment Report (ISSAR) for 2024.
The same report confirmed that as of December 31, 2024, the Government of India operated 22 satellites in low-Earth orbit and 31 in geostationary orbit, out of a total of 136 Indian spacecraft launched into Earth orbit.
A key aspect of IS4OM is Project Netra, the Network for Space Object Tracking and Analysis. This is India’s own early warning system in space, designed to spot and track every piece of debris, rocket body and foreign satellite that strays too close to India’s spacecraft.
Isro is currently progressing the installation of a radar at Chandrapur in Assam and an optical telescope at Hanle in Ladakh under Netra. The refurbished Multi-Object Tracking Radar (MOTR) at Sriharikota has also commenced tracking space objects.
WHO ELSE IS BUILDING INDIA’S SPACE SHIELD?
On the private sector side, Bengaluru-based startup Digantara launched its satellite SCOT (Space Camera for Object Tracking) on January 14, 2025, aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-12 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
According to Digantara’s official statement, SCOT is one of the world’s first commercial space situational awareness satellites, capable of detecting and tracking objects as small as five centimetres in orbit from a Sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite was commissioned on March 8, 2025.
Anirudh Sharma, CEO of Digantara, said in the company’s official statement: “Satellites serve as the backbone of the global economy, and any disruptions to their operations can trigger cascading impacts on Earth, affecting both economic stability and strategic security.”
India has also declared its intent for a Debris Free Space Mission, aiming for debris-free operations by all Indian space actors, both governmental and non-governmental, by 2030, according to the ISSAR 2024.
Space, once the domain of scientists and dreamers, is increasingly a place where nations must also stand guard.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
