India inaugurates its own space debris tracking facility
ISRO, India’s government space agency, today inaugurated its own space debris tracking facility, designed to track space junk much as the Space Force does in the U.S.
A new facility dubbed the System for Safe & Sustainable Operation has been inaugurated in Bengaluru that will deal with emerging threats from space debris.
The new facility will help India achieve its Space Situational Awareness (SSA) goals by providing comprehensive and timely information about the space environment. The system will alert the agency about probabilities of in-orbit collisions, fragmentation, atmospheric re-entry risk, space-based strategic information, hazardous asteroids and space weather forecasts.
Though China might have its own comparable facility, I am unsure. Even if it does, the U.S. military has been for decades the only nation that does this tracking and then provides the data to the world, at no cost. That India is now developing its own capability signals that nation’s desire to chart its own path in space that does not depend on the resources of others.
This facility also signals the shift in ISRO’s job. Before, this government agency built and owned India’s rockets, flying commercial missions for profit. Now, the Modi government wants to transfer those tasks to India’s private sector, with ISRO merely acting as a customer if it needs such services. This change however will reduce ISRO’s influence, something that factions within India’s government are resisting. By giving ISRO the new task of tracking space debris, the Modi government gives ISRO new responsibilities to replace the ones it is losing. This will ease the turf war and speed the transition to a competing commercial industry.
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ISRO, India’s government space agency, today inaugurated its own space debris tracking facility, designed to track space junk much as the Space Force does in the U.S.
A new facility dubbed the System for Safe & Sustainable Operation has been inaugurated in Bengaluru that will deal with emerging threats from space debris.
The new facility will help India achieve its Space Situational Awareness (SSA) goals by providing comprehensive and timely information about the space environment. The system will alert the agency about probabilities of in-orbit collisions, fragmentation, atmospheric re-entry risk, space-based strategic information, hazardous asteroids and space weather forecasts.
Though China might have its own comparable facility, I am unsure. Even if it does, the U.S. military has been for decades the only nation that does this tracking and then provides the data to the world, at no cost. That India is now developing its own capability signals that nation’s desire to chart its own path in space that does not depend on the resources of others.
This facility also signals the shift in ISRO’s job. Before, this government agency built and owned India’s rockets, flying commercial missions for profit. Now, the Modi government wants to transfer those tasks to India’s private sector, with ISRO merely acting as a customer if it needs such services. This change however will reduce ISRO’s influence, something that factions within India’s government are resisting. By giving ISRO the new task of tracking space debris, the Modi government gives ISRO new responsibilities to replace the ones it is losing. This will ease the turf war and speed the transition to a competing commercial industry.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Each country no doubt will officially catalog all but their own most secret assets-so for a complete list-you do your own count and see how it squares with a compilation of each nation’s admitted tally…trust but verify. India’s findings may therefore be the most complete when finished.