Isro to set up new centre to protect Indian satellites from space debris

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Saturday laid the foundation stone for the Space Situational Awareness Control Centre in Bengaluru. 

The control centre would host a range of activities related to the protection of Indian space assets from inactive satellites, pieces of orbiting objects, near earth asteroids and adverse space weather conditions. It would also assimilate the tracking data of inactive satellites from indigenous observation facilities and generates useful information from bare observations through analysis. 

Space Situational Awareness & Management (SSAM) has become an internationally significant area due to the rise of manmade space debris and the increased collision threat with operational spacecraft.

ISRO has set up a Directorate of Space Situational Awareness and Management aimed at protecting high-value space assets from space debris' close approach and collisions.