April 16, 2026

The Indian Space Situational Awareness Report for 2025 (ISSAR-2025) was released by Dr. V. Narayanan, Chairman, ISRO/Secretary, DOS, on the 8^th April, 2026, during the inaugural session of the second international conference on Spacecraft Mission Operations (SMOPS-2026) being held at Bengaluru. An executive summary of ISSAR-2025 is presented below.

Background

ISRO System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS⁴OM) functions as the nodal entity to concert all space sustainability efforts, including Space Situational Awareness (SSA) activities, to safeguard national space assets against various space environmental hazards and to improve compliance with internationally recognised guidelines on the long-term sustainability of outer space activities. As an integral part of these activities, an annual assessment of the prevailing space situation is compiled in the form of the Indian Space Situational Assessment Report (ISSAR) for dissemination to the relevant stakeholders. The highlights for ISSAR-2025 are as follows.

Global Scenario

• The year 2025 witnessed the highest number of launches since the beginning of the space age. There were 328 launch attempts, out of which 315 launches were successful in placing 4198 known operational satellites. A total of 4651 objects were added to the space object population in this year in a significant rise compared to the previous years- the space object population increased by 2963 objects from 254 launches in 2024 and 3135 objects from 212 launches in 2023.The cumulative growth of space objects till the end of 2025 is shown in Figure 1.
  

  Figure 1 Cumulative growth of space objects (data source: Space-Track catalogue, History of On-Orbit Satellite Fragmentations published by NASA)

• The prominent spikes in space object population, seen in Figure 2, correspond to the Transporter rideshare launches (Transporter 12,13,14, and 15 missions on 14 January, 15 March, 2 June, and 28 November respectively), which typically added more than 70 payloads, the highest being on 28 November with 140 payloads. The spikes with more than 50 objects can be correlated with the simultaneous launches of two batches of Starlink satellites or the launches of Starlink and Kuiper batches coinciding on the same day. Launches of satellites from 3 different constellations also coincided on 28 April 2025, namely, two batches of Starlink satellites (50 objects), one batch of Kuiper (27 objects), and one batch of Huilanwang (10 objects). Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle also injected 52 payloads on 28 December 2025.
  

  Figure 2: Number of catalogued objectslaunched in orbit and re-entered the atmosphere on each day from 1st January to 31st December2025 (data source: Space-Track)

• A total of 1911 catalogued objects re-entered the atmosphere. The number of atmospheric re-entries is less than the previous year. A higher number of re-entries in 2024 can be attributed to the large-scale de-orbiting of Starlink satellites and more intense solar activity. Among the objects that re-entered in 2025, 1002 objects were known spacecraft, 657 were debris objects, 108 were rocket bodies, and 144 were of unknown nature.
• Out of the 10749 Starlink satellites, 9396 satellites were still in orbit and 1353 satellites re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere by the end of 2025. In addition, constellations like HulianwangDigui, Kuiper, USA-NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) launched 136, 180, and 99 satellites in 2025, respectively.
• No major on-orbit break-up events were reported in 2025 (events generating typically more than 20 catalogued fragments are considered as major ones).
• There were four lunar missions in 2025, reflecting the renewed interest in lunar exploration. All of these missions were launched by private players. Among them, Blue Ghost Mission 1 made history by becoming the first privately owned spacecraft to successfully soft land on the Moon.
• Notable ground impact events of debris surviving atmospheric re-entries in the reporting period include debris from Falcon-9 second stage which re-entered over Poland on 19 February, Crew-9 Dragon trunk recovered in Chech region, Sahara Desert on 24 March, and multiple Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels(COPV) in Santa Fe, Argentina on 10 May. No casualties were reported. KOSMOS 954, a failed Venus probe which came back to Earth and impacted over the Indian Ocean on May 10, 2025, after 53 years of its launch, was also expected to have survived the re-entry.
• The Shenzhou-20 spacecraft of the Chinese human spaceflight mission to Tiangong space station reportedly suffered a cracked window due to a suspected micrometeoroid impact. The damage was detected on 5 November 2025, which delayed the return of the 3-member crew team, ultimately forcing them to return via another craft on a later date.
• The consolidated data for 2025 is indicative of intensified space activities, as reflected by the maximum number of launches. The growing trend in the space object population continued.
• The sheer number of close approach alerts (~1,60,000) indicates the congestion in space, especially low-Earth orbit. The projected deployment of multiple large constellations indicates a scenario where active satellites may outnumber space debris within the current decade, and a consequent increase in the burden of space traffic coordination.
• The solar activities during the Solar Cycle 25 peak (which started in 2024 end and lasted till early 2025) were high, as indicated by several moderate to severe geomagnetic storms. The effects were reflected in the higher orbital decay rates and a higher number of re-entries at the beginning of the year.

Indian Space Scenario by the End of 2025

A synopsis of the space situation of all Indian objects, since the beginning of India’s space journey and as evolved by the end of 2025, is as follows:

• As of the end of 2025, a total of 144 Indian spacecraft, including those from private operators/academic institutions, have been launched. The number of operational satellites owned by the Government of India was 22 in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and 31 in Geo-synchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). NVS-02 continued to operate in an elliptic Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
• In addition, two Indian deep space missions, namely, Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter (CH2O) and Aditya-L1 at the Sun-Earth Lagrange’s point, are also active. One of the notable events in 2025 was the lunar flyby of the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Propulsion Module (PM), which was placed in a high-altitude Earth orbit in November 2023, away from its original 150 km circular polar orbit. The interplay of gravity fields in deep space led the spacecraft to re-enter the Moon’s Sphere of Influence (SOI) in November 2025, where the Moon's gravitation dominated the motion.
• Among the intact Indian upper stages, a total of 36 rocket bodies have re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere till 31 December 2025. All LVM3 rocket bodies have decayed except for the rocket bodies of LVM3-M2/OneWeb India1 mission, LVM3-M5/ CMS-03, and LVM3-M6/BB-1 mission. Among GSLV rocket bodies, GSLV-F12, GSLV-F14, GSLV-F15, and GSLV-F16 rocket bodies are in orbit. No SSLV rocket bodies remained in orbit by the end of the year 2025.

Space Situation of Indian Objects during 2025

• There were five launches from Sriharikota spaceport, namely GSLV-F15/NVS-02, PSLV-C61/EOS-9, GSLV-F16/NISAR, LVM3-M5/CMS-03, and LVM3-M6/Blue bird Block-2 mission. All of them, except PSLV-C61, successfully injected the payloads in their nominally designated orbits. PSLV-C61 suffered a third stage anomaly that resulted in a suborbital flight and could not inject the EOS-9 satellite into its orbit. GSLV-F15 marked the 100th launch of an Indian Launch Vehicle from SDSC-SHAR.NVS-02 satellite launched by GSLV-F15 could not be raised to its designated orbit despite precise injection into GTO due to propulsion system failure. NISAR, a joint NASA-ISRO mission, was successfully launched on 30 July 2025. CMS-03/GSAT-7R was successfully launched and placed in its designated longitude slot. Consequently, a total of 2 Indian satellites, 1 foreign satellite, and 4 rocket bodies were placed in their intended orbits by Indian launchers. In addition, three Firefly satellites, NILA, and LEAP-1 were also launched from the US. As a result, a total of 8 Indian satellites were placed in orbit.

#	Indian Launch Vehicle	Indian Satellites		Foreign Payloads
		ISRO/GOI	Private/ Academic
1.	Not Applicable	-	Firefly 1, 2, 3 (by Transporter 12 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California)	-
2.	GSLV-F15 / NVS-02	NVS-02	-	-
3.	Not Applicable	-	NILA (by Transporter 13 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California)	-
4.	GSLV-F16/NISAR	NISAR	-	-
5.	Not Applicable	-	LEAP-1 (Falcon-9 Block 5 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California)	-
6.	LVM3 M5/CMS-03	CMS-03	-	-
7.	LVM3 M6/ BB2B	-	-	Blue Bird Block 2

• Collision Avoidance Analysis (COLA) for lift-off clearance of launch vehicles were carried out.

#	Mission	Nominal lift-off time (UTC)	Change in nominal lift-off	Launch Pad@SHAR
1	GSLV-F15/NVS-02	29-01-2025 00:53:00	-	Second
2	PSLV-C61/EOS-09	18-05-2025 00:29:00	-	First
3	GSLV-F16/NISAR	30-07-2025 12:10:25	-	Second
4	LVM3-M5/CMS-03	02-11-2025 11:56:00	-	Second
5	LVM3-M6/ BlueBird Block-2	24-12-2025 03:24:49	Delayed by 41 sec to 03:25:30 UTC	Second

The lift-off of LVM3 M6 mission was delayed by 41 sec based on COLA recommendation.

• More than 1,50,000 alerts issued by the Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) of USSPACECOM for ISRO’s Earth orbiting satellites were analysed using more accurate orbital data from operational flight dynamics. There were 4 collision avoidance manoeuvres (CAM) for GEO, while 14 CAMs, including one for NISAR, which is designated as Risk Mitigation Maneuver in NASA terminology, were performed for LEO satellites. Wherever feasible, collision avoidance requirements were met by adjusting orbit maintenance manoeuvres to avoid exclusive CAMs.

Orbital Regime of Spacecraft	No.of CAMs	Remarks
LEO	14	Requirements for collision avoidance were incorporated in regular orbit manoeuvres wherever it was feasible
GEO	4
Total (LEO + GEO)	18
Planetary (Chandrayaan-2)	2	Orbit manoeuvre plan revised on 1 January & 24 July, 2025 for conjunction situation with LRO

• All manoeuvre plans, including those of the CAMs, were subjected to close approach risk analysis to rule out any potential close approach with other neighbouring space objects within a few days of the manoeuvres; 82 manoeuvre plans were revised to avoid post-manoeuvre close approaches with other space objects for LEO satellites. Similarly, on two occasions, manoeuvre plans had to be revised to avoid post-manoeuvre conjunctions for GEO satellites.

Orbital Regime of Spacecraft	No. of Orbit Manoeuvres
LEO	563
GEO	519 (excluding pulsing manoeuvres)
Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter	16

• A similar methodology for conjunction assessment and collision risk mitigation was followed for deep-space missions. For the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter (CH2O), 16 OMs were carried out, and the plans for manoeuvre were adjusted on 2 occasions.
• The required coordination for spaceflight safety was carried out for all operational satellites. For CH2O, such coordination with Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and iSpace during their lunar orbiting phase was facilitated by NASA.
• At its end-of-mission, the IRNSS-1D satellite was raised to a graveyard orbit nearly 600 km above the geostationary belt and passivated. While relocation of geostationary satellites to super-synchronous orbits at the end of the mission has been a regular practice in ISRO, this is the first-ever disposal of an Indian satellite operating in an inclined geosynchronous orbit. The Cartosat-2A satellite, which was launched in 2008 and successfully completed andfar exceeded its designated mission life of 5 years, became non-operational in 2025.
• In the reporting year, TES and POEM-4 re-entered Earth’s atmosphere through natural decay. Two more upper stages of the SSLV-D3 mission, namely the Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) and the solid stage (SS3), re-entered the atmosphere. Eight debris originating from the fragmentation of PSLV C3 re-entered the atmosphere in 2025, while 33 still remained in orbit as of 31 December 2025. Hence, the total number of Indian objects that re-entered the atmosphere in 2025 is 12.
• Another significant milestone in 2025 was the SpaDeX mission, which demonstrated autonomous rendezvous, docking and undocking capabilities. Operations of the relocatable robotic arm and robotic manipulator were also successfully demonstrated on the upper stage of the launch vehicle for this mission, known as the PS4 orbital experimental module/ POEM-4 platform. Such demonstrations mark a significant step towards making bigger strides in long-term sustainability of outer space activities through future endeavours such as mission life extension, active debris removal, and in-space servicing and assembly.
• 2025 also marked the historic voyage of the Indian astronaut, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who commanded the private Axiom 4 crewed mission to ISS in Dragon crew module. The mission was launched from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Centre on June 25, with Dragon spacecraft successfully docking to ISS on June 26, undocking on July 14, and splashing down on July 15.

Efforts to Preserve Space Sustainability

Efforts were continued to fulfil the objectives of Debris Free Space Mission (DFSM), which was declared in 2024, during the plenary session of the 42nd annual meet of IADC at Bengaluru. DFSM aims for debris-free space missions by all Indian space actors, both governmental and non-governmental, by 2030, by adopting the necessary measures during the design, operation, and disposal phases, such as allocating sufficient fuel to ensure post-mission deorbiting capability of LEO satellites.

As part of indigenous SSA capacity building through Network for Space Objects Tracking and Analysis (NETRA) project, the establishment of an optical telescope at Hanle, Ladakh, is underway. Design and review of an indigenous phased array space object tracking radar was completed by a national-level expert committee in 2025. The efforts to establish an indigenously developed radar in the north-eastern part of India are in progress. The Multi-Object Tracking Radar (MOTR) at Sriharikota currently tracks space objects, including the Indian rocket bodies and satellites such as POEM-4, during their last few orbits before atmospheric re-entry, wherever feasible. The Baker Nunn Schmidt Telescope (BNST), currently being refurbished at Nainital, under collaboration with ARIES, is also expected to enhance space object tracking capability in the near future.

India actively participates in the deliberations related to space debris in international fora like Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), IAA Space Debris Committee, International Astronautical Federation (IAF) STM Committee, ISO working group 7, and the UN working group on long-term sustainability to provide relevant inputs. In synergy with the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), ISRO engages with private actors for handholding and experience sharing for best practices related to spaceflight safety.

As part of an unwavering commitment to the preservation of the sustainability of outer space activities, ISRO will continue to proactively implement space debris mitigation measures to achieve the goals of DFSM and collaborate with relevant stakeholders at the national and international level.