National Space Day : President Droupadi Murmu voices concern over increasing space debris

New Delhi, August 23

President Droupadi Murmu on Friday expressed concern over increasing space debris as a result of numerous satellites cluttering the orbit and praised Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for setting a target to make future space missions debris free by 2030.

Murmu was speaking at the maiden National Space Day celebrations to mark the first anniversary of the landing of India’s Chandrayaan-3 project. According to an estimate by NASA in 2019, more than 128 million pieces of debris smaller than 1 cm (0.4 in), about 9,00,000 pieces of debris of the size varying from 1 to 10 cm, and around 34,000 of pieces larger than 10 cm (3.9 in) can be found floating in orbit around the Earth.

“Space debris can cause problems for space missions,” Murmu said during the event at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. The function was attended by Minister Jitendra Singh, ISRO Chairman S Somanath and other members of the country’s space faring community.

Murmu appreciated the ISRO system for safe and sustainable operations management facility, which ensures continuous progress of space research activities.

“I am also happy to note that India is moving forward to make all its space missions debris free by 2030,” Murmu said. She also presented awards to winners of the Robotics Challenge and the Bharatiya Antariksh Hackathon on the occasion.

The President said the progress of India’s space sector was extraordinary. Be it the Mars mission done with limited resources or the successful launch of more than a 100 satellites at one go, ISRO made many impressive achievements, she said.

She said space exploration had increased the capabilities of human beings and transformed imagination into reality. “But space exploration is a challenging task. Research conducted to solve the problems during space exploration accelerates the development of science and improves human life,” she said.

The President said many sectors, including health and medicine, transportation, security, energy, environment and information technology, had benefited from developments in the space sector. She pointed out that with the opening of the space sector to private entities, the number of start-ups had increased at a very rapid pace.

“This has not only brought progress in space research but also given new opportunities to our youth to showcase and hone their talents,” Murmu said.