Bengaluru startup Digantara to launch satellite to monitor space objects on board SpaceX rocket

Bengaluru-based start-up Digantara is set to launch the world's first commercial satellite for surveillance of objects as small as 5 cm orbiting the Earth to ensure safer space operations.

Surveillance of outer space or situational space awareness (SSA) is important to ensure the safety of spacecraft as orbits around the Earth become crowded with artificial satellites as well as space debris.

Last month, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had to delay the launch of SpaDeX satellites by two minutes due to congestion in the orbit and the path of the rocket. Even a slight nudge by a piece of debris to a spacecraft orbiting the Earth at over 25,000 km per hour could prove fatal.

Digantara's Space Camera for Object Tracking (SCOT) satellite is set for launch onboard SpaceX's Transporter-12 mission around Tuesday midnight from California.

"With SCOT, we are taking a crucial step in achieving surveillance superiority, ensuring not only a safer and more sustainable space environment but also towards safeguarding sovereign assets in the face of an increasingly contested space domain," said Anirudh Sharma, Founder and CEO of Digantara Aerospace.

SCOT aims to enhance space safety, optimise traffic management and bolster national security initiatives, he said.

SCOT will be deployed in a sun-synchronous orbit, enabling it to track objects in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with greater efficiency than existing sensors, which are constrained by weather conditions, geographic limitations and restricted fields of view.

"Unlike these traditional systems, SCOT offers persistent monitoring of Resident Space Objects, detecting and tracking objects as small as 5 cm," a company statement said.

As one of the world's first commercial Space Situational Awareness (SSA) satellites, SCOT is engineered to track Resident Space Objects (RSOs) with unmatched frequency and precision.

The statement said that in an era where space is becoming increasingly crowded and competitive, SCOT is purpose-built to monitor smaller RSOs, deliver higher revisit rates and provide enhanced tracking accuracy – filling a crucial gap left by current systems.

The satellite forms a key part of Digantara's mission to establish a hybrid network of surveillance systems, delivering persistent monitoring of the near-Earth environment to ensure improved safety and the long-term sustainability of space operations.