SYLLABUS
GS-2: Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation; Issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure.
GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment; Disaster and disaster management.
Context: The Indian Space Situational Awareness Report 2025 (ISSAR 2025) has been released by the Indian Space Research Organisation as its annual assessment of the space environment.
Key Highlights of the Report
- Record Space Activity: The year 2025 witnessed the highest number of launches since the beginning of the space age.
- There were 328 launch attempts, out of which 315 launches were successful in placing 4198 known operational satellites.
- Rise in Lunar Exploration Activities: There were four lunar missions in 2025, reflecting the renewed interest in lunar exploration.
- All of these missions were launched by private players. Among them, Blue Ghost Mission 1 made history by becoming the first privately owned spacecraft to successfully soft land on the Moon.
- Rising Space Congestion: Approximately 1.6 lakh close-approach alerts were issued globally, including a significant number for Indian satellites, indicating increasing congestion, especially in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
- Growing Space Debris Threat: The accumulation of defunct satellites and fragmentation debris continues to increase collision risks, making space debris one of the most pressing challenges for space operations.
- Emergence of Private and Commercial Space Activity: The report highlights the rising role of private players and commercial missions, including lunar missions, contributing to increased orbital traffic.
Indian Space Scenario by the End of 2025
- By the end of 2025, India operated a total of about 144 spacecraft, including government, private, and academic‑institutional satellites.
- The number of operational satellites owned by the Government of India was 22 in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and 31 in Geo-synchronous Earth Orbit (GEO).
- India’s launch activity in 2025 included five missions from Sriharikota, of which four achieved their intended orbits, and the milestone 100th Indian launch took place with GSLV F15, marking Sriharikota as a key long-term spaceport.
- In addition, two Indian deep space missions, namely, Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter (CH2O) and Aditya-L1 at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point, are also active.
- Beyond traditional satellites, India also advanced in orbit demonstrations with the SpaDeX mission, which showcased autonomous satellite docking and undocking, laying the groundwork for future in-orbit servicing, constellation management, and potential debris removal technologies.
- 2025 also marked the historic voyage of the Indian astronaut, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who commanded the private Axiom 4 crewed mission to ISS in the Dragon crew module.
India’s Efforts to Preserve Space Sustainability
- Institutional Mechanisms: ISRO has established IS4OM (ISRO System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations Management) as a dedicated platform to monitor space objects, assess collision risks, and ensure compliance with global sustainability guidelines.
- Indigenous SSA Capabilities: India is developing indigenous Space Situational Awareness (SSA) capabilities such as Project NETRA, which enables tracking of space debris and prediction of collision threats, reducing dependence on foreign data.
- Debris Mitigation Initiatives: ISRO has launched the Debris‑Free Space Missions (DFSM) 2030 initiative, committing to eliminate the creation of new orbital debris from all Indian space missions by 2030.
- Collision Avoidance and Monitoring: Regular collision avoidance manoeuvres (CAMs) and continuous monitoring of space objects help protect Indian satellites from potential hazards.
- International Cooperation: India actively participates in the deliberations related to space debris in international fora like Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), IAA Space Debris Committee, etc., promoting responsible behaviour in outer space.