Govt plans 'bodyguard' satellites after risky near-miss in orbit

The government wants to develop so-called bodyguard satellites to identify and counter threats to orbiting spacecraft

By Mihir Mishra

 

India is developing a plan to improve its ability to protect satellites from attacks, people familiar with the matter said, after a near miss in orbit highlighted risks to national security posed by other spacecraft. 

 

The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to develop so-called bodyguard satellites to identify and counter threats to orbiting spacecraft, according to people who requested to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter. Satellites also played a significant role during India’s conflict with rival Pakistan in May, which put the nations on the brink of all-out war. 

 

A previously unreported incident highlighted the need for action, the people added, when a satellite from a neighbouring country came dangerously close to one of India’s. 

 

The near miss in mid-2024 involved one of Indian space agency Isro’s satellites orbiting around 500-600 kilometers (311-373 miles) above the Earth, the same part of space that’s getting increasingly crowded with communications satellites like Elon Musk’s Starlink network.

 

The spacecraft from a neighbouring country, which the people familiar with the matter wouldn’t name, came within 1 kilometer of an Isro satellite performing tasks that could have military applications such as mapping and monitoring of objects on the ground, they said.

 

Although the two satellites didn’t collide, such an unusually close approach was possibly a show of strength that could have been a test to demonstrate the other nation’s capabilities, the people said.

 

Isro and the Department of Space did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Satellite-protection project 

The satellite-protection project is part of a bigger effort by Modi’s government to develop more security assets in orbit, including a ₹27,000 crore ($3 billion) plan for about 50 surveillance satellites, the first of which is expected to launch next year. 

 

India has had multiple armed conflicts in the past seven decades with both Pakistan and China — nations that have vastly different capabilities in space.

 

Pakistan has just eight satellites, compared with more than 100 for India, according to data from N2Y0.com, a website that tracks such spacecraft. The same website puts the number of satellites operated by China at more than 930.  

 

New Delhi and Beijing have longstanding territorial disputes that have led to clashes, including a 2020 skirmish when at least 20 Indian soldiers and unknown number of Chinese died in fighting along the border.

 

Officials in both India and the US have warned that China’s People’s Liberation Army is becoming a greater threat in space. Beijing’s satellite program has rapidly expanded in both scale and sophistication, Indian Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit cautioned in June at a seminar organised by the Centre for Air Power Studies in New Delhi.

 

India’s government now is working with startups to find the right solutions, the people familiar with the matter said. 

 

Although the discussions are still in the early stages, the goal could be to launch Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) satellites to identify threats quicker, providing enough time for technicians on Earth to send orders for the targeted satellite to reposition itself. 

 

Ground-based radars 

The LiDAR satellites would need to part of a bigger system that would include ground-based radars and telescopes, said Sudheer Kumar N, former director at Isro’s Capacity Building Program Office and is an independent consultant.

 

“We do not have such in-orbit tracking capability on a 24x7 basis,” he said, “but some of the startups are working on it.” 

 

Isro played an important national-security role in May during an armed conflict between India and Pakistan. More than 400 scientists worked around the clock to support the agency’s Earth observation and communication satellites, Isro chairman V Narayanan said in a speech on Sept. 9.

 

During the hostilities, China provided Pakistan with support, helping Islamabad adjust its satellite coverage, a research group under India’s defense ministry said in May.