According to reports, India is working on a detailed plan to improve its capabilities to keep satellites in orbit safe from possible assaults. Sources who know about the situation say that this campaign was started because of a previously unknown near-miss incident in mid-2024 that showed how other spacecraft are becoming more dangerous to national security.
Anonymous sources say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wants to develop “bodyguard satellites” that can find and stop threats to spacecraft in orbit. During a fight with Pakistan in May, satellites played a big part, which showed how important this skill is. During that time, a research committee from India’s defense ministry said that China helped Pakistan by assisting them change the way their satellites covered the area.
A Risky Close Call
One of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) satellites was almost hit while it was orbiting at a height of about 500–600 kilometers. There are more and more commercial and military spacecraft in this portion of space, including networks like Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The alien spacecraft, which came from a nearby country that wasn’t named, got within 1 kilometer of the ISRO satellite. The Indian satellite was doing things that could be useful for the military, like mapping and keeping an eye on things on the ground. There was no crash, but insiders say that the abnormally close approach may have been a “show of strength” or a test to show what the other country could do. ISRO and the Department of Space did not answer requests for comments about the event.
India’s Growing Plan for Space Security
The “bodyguard satellite” project is just one part of a bigger plan by the Modi government to make additional security tools available in space. This includes a proposal to launch about 50 additional surveillance satellites for ₹270 billion ($3 billion), with the first one set to go up next year.
India has had problems with both Pakistan and China in the past. These two countries have quite distinct space capabilities. India has more than 100 satellites, whereas Pakistan just has eight. China has more than 930. Officials from both India and the United States have said they are worried about how quickly and how advanced China’s space program is growing. Indian Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit has said that the People’s Liberation Army is becoming a bigger threat in space.
India is teaming up with entrepreneurs to build the technology it needs to defend its assets. While talks are still in their early stages, one possible answer is to send up Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) satellites that might immediately find dangers. According to Sudheer Kumar N, a former director of ISRO, these satellites will be part of a bigger system that includes ground-based radars and telescopes. This system would be able to track the satellites in orbit all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.