Kamal Ghorui
BENGALURU: Earth’s orbit is turning into a high-speed traffic grid and Indian satellites are swerving to stay safe. More than 1.5 lakh close approach alerts were issued for Indian space assets in 2025, exposing mounting collision risks in an increasingly crowded sky.Data from Indian Space Situational Assessment Report 2025 shows about 1.6 lakh alerts globally, many generated by the US Space Command’s Combined Space Operations Center. Each alert flags a potential nearmiss — a sign of how tightly packed orbital paths have become. Behind record-breaking launches lies mounting operational pressure.A surge in satellite constellations, often deployed in clusters exceeding 100 objects in a single day, has shrunk reaction windows and complicated tracking.For Isro, that has meant constant vigilance. Indian missions carried out 18 collision avoidance manoeuvres (CAM) during the year — 14 in low Earth orbit and four in geosynchronous orbit — to steer clear of danger. “All manoeuvre plans, including CAMs, were subjected to close-approach risk analysis to rule out potential close approach with neighbouring space objects within a few days of the manoeuvres; 82 manoeuvre plans were revised to avoid post-manoeuvre close approaches with other space objects for LEO satellites, and two were revised to avoid post-manoeuvre conjunctions for GEO satellites,” the report found.Deep-space missions faced similar constraints. Chandrayaan-2 orbiter executed 16 orbit manoeuvres, with plans altered twice to avoid risks.Globally, 315 successful launches in 2025 placed 4,651 objects in orbit — far higher than 254 launches in 2024 and 212 in 2023. Of these, 4,198 are operational satellites. While 1,911 objects re-entered the atmosphere, the total population in orbit continues to grow. A tipping point looms. Active satellites could outnumber debris within this decade, raising stakes for coordination as more objects move through narrow corridors at high speeds.
