Recently, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi lauded the Indian space startup Digantara at the success of Mission SCOT. He remarked that it was an important contribution of the growing Indian space industry towards enhancing space situational awareness.
About SCOT satellite
- Digantara launched its SCOT satellite aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-12 mission to enhance space safety and track Resident Space Objects (RSOs).
- Mission SCOT is the world’s first commercial Space Situational Awareness (SSA) satellite.
- It will monitor Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with improved efficiency. Backed by Aditya Birla Ventures and SIDBI, it aims to support national security and space operations.
- It will ensure surveillance of objects as small as 5 cm orbiting the Earth to ensure safer space operations.
Space Situational Awareness
- There are tens of thousands of objects in Earth orbit that pose a potential threat to satellites and launches.
- Space Situational Awareness (SSA) refers to keeping track of objects in orbit and predicting where they will be at any given time.
- According to ISRO, a total of 3143 objects originating from 212 launches and on-orbit break-up events were added to the space object population in 2023 compared to 2533 objects from 179 launches in 2022.
- There were five major on-orbit break-up events in 2023. Some of these fragments decayed within the same year, resulting in a net addition of 69 fragmented objects to the population of space debris by the end of 2023.
- Space Object Proximity Analysis (SOPA) for Satellites: ISRO regularly carries out analyses through IS4OM/ ISTRAC to predict close approaches by other space objects to Indian space assets.
(News Source: PIB)
