India’s first Commercial Space Situational Awareness Observatory to be placed in Uttarakhand
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On Tuesday, Uttarakhand’s Garhwal region will be setting up India’s first Commercial Space Situational Awareness Observatory.
It will be built by Bengaluru-based start-up Digantara and will be used to track satellites and space debris.
The observatory will also be used for monitoring space activity, including space debris that is floating in the Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). It will also add to India’s capability to locate and track military satellites hovering over the region.
According to the details shared by Digantara, India’s 1st Commercial Space Situational Awareness Observatory will be able to track objects as small as 10 cm in size orbiting the earth.
It will help India to be established as a key player in the space debris monitory sector, which is currently dominated by the USA. Currently, there is a major gap in the global SSA Observation Network, especially in Australia and the southern Africa region.
The India-based SSA Observatory will help the country to monitor space activity in this region to safeguard its national interest. The SSA Observatory will provide India with indigenous capabilities to monitor space activity over the subcontinent providing a strategic advantage, Jagran Josh reports.
