Digantara commissions world's first commercial space surveillance satellite

The world's first commercial space surveillance satellite, capable of tracking objects as small as 5 centimetres orbiting the Earth, was commissioned on Saturday as it captured images over South America, the Bengaluru-based start-up Digantara said.

Digantara had launched the space surveillance satellite SCOT (Space Camera for Object Tracking) on January 14 aboard SpaceX's Transporter-12 rocket.

The satellite started operations on Saturday.

As space becomes increasingly congested, this capability is essential for mitigating collision risks and promoting sustainable space operations by providing accurate and dependable data to satellite operators and regulatory bodies.

SCOT has been deployed in a sun-synchronous orbit that allows it to track objects in Low Earth Orbit with more efficiency than existing sensors, which are restricted by fields of view, weather conditions and geographic limitations.