New Delhi: India is making rapid progress towards establishing its own space station while simultaneously advancing the Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission, ISRO Program Director Imtiyaz Ahmed has said.
Work is currently underway on nearly 80 satellites that will play a crucial role in scientific research innovation, disaster management, internal security, navigation, and relaying critical signals for the Gaganyaan mission back to Earth, the senior ISRO official said.
He said ISRO is presently engaged in several major projects, including Earth Observation missions, Navigation with Indian Constellation (NVS), the Indian Data Relay Satellite System (IDRSS), Gaganyaan and the Venus Orbiter Mission. Together, these initiatives reflect India’s expanding footprint in space science, exploration and applied technologies.
With the aim of minimizing the risk of satellites' collision in low-earth orbit due to congestion, the Department of Space/Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) opted for operational orbits away from the already known crowded zones and perform need-based evasive manoeuvres, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Minister of State (MoS) for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, in a written reply, said that other measures taken by the space agency towards strengthening Space Situational Awareness (SSA) for Indian satellites include continual assessment of collision risks and performing Collision Avoidance Manoeuvres (CAMs) as and when required.
In reply to another query, the MoS said the cumulative expenditure on the Gaganyaan program as on January 2026 stands at nearly Rs 6,018 crore.
On the satellite collision issue, MoS Singh referred to the setting up of indigenous facilities to monitor the space objects under the Network for Space Object Tracking and Analysis (NETRA) project, among others.
