According to the recently published Indian orbit Situational Assessment Report (ISSAR) for 2024, Isro successfully executed 10 Collision Avoidance Manoeuvres (CAMs) in 2024 to safeguard its satellites from any collision with other objects in space.

Space Agency Space Situational Awareness (SSA) actions are conducted to safeguard national space assets against space environmental dangers,including energy and particle flow, natural objects like asteroids and meteoroids, and resident space objects like space debris.

Low earth orbit (LEO) satellites’ 89 maneuver plans were updated last year to prevent post-manoeuvre close encounters with other space objects.

According to the report,two times, geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites’ manoeuvre plans had to be changed to prevent post-manoeuvre conjunctions.

In the past 14 years, Isro has completed 122 CAMs for its satellites in orbit around the world. The organization said that more precise orbital data from flight dynamics was used to analyze more than 53,000 alerts sent by the US Space Command’s Combined Space Operations Center for Isro’s earth-orbiting satellites.

Data indicates that a maximum of 23 CAMs were performed between 2022 and 2023. 122 CAMs were undertaken from 2010 and 2024. Ten CAMs were present between 2023 and 2024.

“In 2024, there were fewer CAMs than the year before. This happened because the enhanced close approach analysis method, which involved a bigger conjunction screening volume and the use of more precise ephemerides, allowed for better collision avoidance. They adjusted orbit maintenance maneuvers multiple times and managed to avoid unnecessary CAMs”, Isro stated.

Regarding the return of satellites after their missions, Isro reported that by the end of 2024, a total of 31 Indian satellites had re-entered the atmosphere. In the year 2024, nine Indian satellites accomplished this feat. Notably, Cartosat-2 was among them, re-entering the atmosphere on February 14, 2024. This marked Isro’s first-ever LEO satellite to be deorbited at the end of its life, successfully reducing its post-mission orbital lifespan from over 30 years to less than 4 years.

By December 31, 2024, India had launched a total of 136 spacecraft, which included contributions from private companies and academic institutions, into Earth orbit. At the end of 2024, India had 22 operational satellites in lower Earth orbit (LEO) and 31 in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO).

Also, there were two Indian deep space missions going on: the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter and Aditya-L1 at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point. Isro mentioned that by the end of 2024, 34 rocket bodies had re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, with five of those re-entries happening in 2024.

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