Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh told the Lower House that ISRO was following guidelines set by the United Nations as well as the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee for space debris mitigation.
The guidelines include post-mission disposal of satellites and rocket bodies in an efficient manner to ensure that space debris produced by India does not remain in orbit.
“ISRO has also initiated research and development activities on active debris removal to extract space debris from space,” Singh said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha.
He said that at the end of each mission, space junk or the satellite/rocket at the end of its operational life is de-orbited quickly with a series of carefully planned maneuvers.
Due to ISRO’s post-mission disposal activities, the only space debris left behind after any mission is the final stage rocket body which is de-orbited to a lower orbit to facilitate natural orbital decay due to atmospheric drag, Singh said. .
Space debris then naturally re-enters Earth’s atmosphere within 20 years and burns up due to aerodynamic heating caused by air friction, he said.
Last week, the International Space Station had to lower its orbit by 310 meters for nearly three minutes to dodge a fragment from an American launch vehicle. In November, Russia conducted an anti-satellite missile test that generated debris in low Earth orbit that could pose a hazard to space activities.
