India Gains In-Orbit Spying Capability, Can Now Snoop On Enemy Satellites

In a significant milestone for India's growing private space sector, Ahmedabad-based Azista Industries Private Limited through its aerospace vertical has demonstrated a new indigenous capability to image objects in orbit from another satellite, a first for an Indian private sector and a key step toward strengthening India's space situational awareness. This is often called in orbit snooping!

Using its 80-kilogram Earth-observation satellite AFR, Azista successfully captured images of the International Space Station (ISS), a large and relatively easy-to-track orbital object, during two carefully planned experiments on February 3. While the ISS is among the most visible and cooperative targets in low-Earth orbit, the achievement marks an important beginning for India's private sector in a domain that is increasingly strategic and closely watched globally.

Azista conducted two independent imaging attempts under challenging near-horizon and sunlit conditions. The first pass was executed at a distance of approximately 300 kilometres, followed by a second at about 245 kilometres. In both attempts, the AFR satellites' sensor was precisely tasked to track the fast-moving ISS, capturing a total of 15 distinct frames with an imaging sampling of around 2.2 metres. According to the company, both attempts achieved 100 per cent success, validating its tracking algorithms and electro-optical imaging precision.

To Azista, the demonstration is more than a technical achievement, it is proof that indigenous algorithms, electro-optical systems, and satellite engineering developed entirely in India can be used to track and characterise objects in orbit.

Speaking after the successful experiment, Srinivas Reddy, Managing Director of Azista, said AFR today supports multiple customers with advanced imaging and remote-sensing solutions and has now demonstrated Non-Earth Imaging (NEI) using fully indigenous systems. "These technologies form the backbone of our NEI and SSA payloads, enabling precise tracking and characterisation of objects in orbit," he said. The same technology once mastered can also help monitor incoming ballistic missiles. 

Space Situational Awareness, the ability to detect, track, and understand the behaviour of objects in space, is becoming increasingly important as more countries deploy satellites with capabilities that can interfere with, jam, or manoeuvre close to other space assets. With congestion and competition growing in low-Earth orbit, monitoring what is happening above the planet has become as critical as observing what happens on its surface.

India today operates more than 50 satellites, collectively valued at over Rs 50,000 crore, spread across communication, navigation, Earth observation, and strategic applications. Protecting these assets requires timely information on what other satellites are doing in orbit, particularly during periods of heightened geopolitical tension.

While ISRO has demonstrated such capabilities earlier, including through the recent SPADEX in-orbit experiment that showcased precision rendezvous and manoeuvring, Azista's effort represents a new approach driven by the private sector. By imaging the ISS, AFR has demonstrated a foundational capability that could, over time, be extended to monitor less cooperative or more complex orbital targets.

Brigadier Adarsh Bharadwaj, Executive Director at Azista, said the demonstration provides India with a much-needed ability to observe activity in orbit at a time when space platforms are becoming more vulnerable to interference. He described the ISS images as the "first proof of what can be achieved in the future," noting that India is entering a new era of space situational awareness that will help protect national interests in space.

AFR itself is a milestone. Weighing just 80 kilograms, it is the first satellite in its size and performance class to be designed, built, and operated entirely by private industry in India. Launched on June 13, 2023, aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-8 mission, the satellite has completed 2.5 years in orbit and continues to operate nominally, with another 2.5 years of mission life remaining.

Beyond SSA, AFR already supports naval imaging, night imaging, and video imaging modes, serving civilian and defence customers worldwide. Azista Space says it is now building next-generation indigenous payloads capable of producing imagery of the ISS at resolutions as fine as 25 centimetres from its upcoming electro-optical payload manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad.

While imaging the ISS may be only a first step, it signals that India's private space industry is beginning to enter a strategic domain once dominated solely by governments, quietly expanding the country's ability to watch, understand, and protect what happens in orbit.