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Space debris and re-entry

Debris is now a running cost in orbit: most Indian satellites in low earth orbit face a raised collision risk, and each dodge is paid for in fuel. India's answer has two halves, a Debris Free Space Mission aiming at zero debris and the radars and telescopes to see what is up there, and, from August 2026, a licence before an Indian operator may bring a spacecraft down.

How crowded India's orbits are

20Collision avoidance manoeuvres by Indian satellites in 2025

9Manoeuvres in 2026 up to August

20 of 22Active Indian satellites in low earth orbit at higher collision risk

From the Press Information Bureau, 5 and 13 August 2026

A collision avoidance manoeuvre spends fuel that cannot be replaced, so debris shortens a satellite's working life even when nothing is struck.

How an object leaves orbit

Atmospheric drag pulls a low orbit down on its own, so an object in low earth orbit comes back in years or decades whether anyone means it to or not.
Higher orbits have too little air for drag to do that work, so an object left there stays.
Re-entry does not destroy everything: light structure burns up, while dense parts such as tanks and engine components can survive to the ground.
That is why a planned re-entry is aimed at open ocean, and why where a dead object comes down is no longer its owner's business alone.

The rules an Indian operator works under

The Debris Free Space Mission, announced in 2024, sets the aim of zero debris from every Indian space actor.
ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has belonged to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, formed in 1993, since 1996.
Norms issued in 2024 by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) require a satellite to be disposed of once its mission ends.
A framework on liability for damage to third parties is still under consideration.

Space debris: Dead satellites, spent rocket stages and the fragments they shed, left in orbit and still travelling at orbital speed, so even a small piece carries enough energy to destroy a working spacecraft.

Upper stage: The top section of a rocket, which places the payload on its final path and is then abandoned. It can stay in orbit for years afterwards.

Low earth orbit: Orbits below about 2,000 km, where most satellites and the crewed space stations fly, and where the traffic is densest.

Planned re-entry: Bringing a spacecraft or rocket stage back into the atmosphere deliberately, at a chosen time and over a chosen place, rather than letting it fall where it will.

Post-mission disposal: Removing a satellite from orbit at the end of its working life, one form of planned re-entry.

Active debris removal: Deliberately capturing a dead object and taking it out of orbit, rather than waiting on atmospheric drag.

LCROSS: Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, an American probe deliberately crashed into a crater near the Moon's south pole in 2009.

What has happened

24 Aug 2026
IN-SPACe issued India's first guidelines on planned re-entry, on the third National Space Day.
- Any Indian entity carrying out a planned re-entry, anywhere, needs IN-SPACe authorisation.
- A foreign entity re-entering over Indian territory must work through an Indian incorporated entity answerable to Indian law.
- They draw on the United Nations Guidelines for the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities.
The Hindu, 24 Aug 2026: India's first rules for planned re-entry of spacecraft (opens in a new tab)
13 Aug 2026
Two government releases set out what India is building to watch its own orbits.
- The multi-object tracking radar at Sriharikota is already working.
- The NETRA (Network for Space Objects Tracking and Analysis) telescope at Hanle will track objects of 30 cm or more in geostationary orbit.
- Early steps towards active debris removal have already been demonstrated in orbit.
PIB, 13 Aug 2026: Space debris: ISRO's collision-avoidance manoeuvres and Debris Free Space Mission (opens in a new tab)
5 Aug 2026
A four tonne Falcon 9 upper stage, abandoned after a January 2025 lunar launch, struck the Moon near the Einstein crater at 8,700 km/h.
- Because its mass and speed were known, the impact is a controlled source experiment on lunar dust and seismic effects.
- The last comparable impact was LCROSS in 2009, which confirmed water ice near the south pole.
- The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was to image the site.
The Hindu, 5 Aug 2026: Astronomers prepare as SpaceX rocket stage nears Moon strike (opens in a new tab)