Why is an Indian satellite capturing photos of the ISS being seen as a technical milestone?

There arise obvious difficulties in taking photos in Space — the high speeds of the objects passing by, ensuring that cameras survive the launch from Earth, the contrasts in lighting, and so on.

The ISS acts as a base for research and collaboration among countries. It orbits the Earth at an average altitude of 400 km and travels at approximately 7.6 km per second, while the AFR moves at roughly 7 km per second in a different orbital path. Capturing a usable image requires accurate orbit prediction, precision tracking and pointing, careful sun-angle alignment, high-speed image stabilisation and sophisticated post-processing algorithms.

The AFR imaged the ISS at 2.2-metre resolution, and the company behind it says its upcoming payloads are designed to deliver even better images. According to Sunil Indurti, the Director of Azista Space, the demonstration showcases three core SSA capabilities: locating an object in orbit, tracking — predicting and following its motion precisely — and characterisation, or visually inspecting and identifying it. “That third component, characterisation, is where optical SSA becomes strategically important,” he said.

Need for Space Situational Awareness

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) refers to knowledge about the behaviour of objects in and around the Earth’s orbit, including active satellites and material in Space.

“Modern space security is no longer just about preventing collisions. It is about understanding spacecraft behaviour. Is a satellite stable or tumbling? Has it deployed new appendages? Is it manoeuvring unexpectedly? Is it conducting proximity operations? Optical payloads enable shape analysis, orientation detection and anomaly identification. This shifts SSA from passive monitoring to informed decision-making,” said Indurti.

Calling Space an “increasingly contested domain,” Indurti argued that indigenous optical SSA capability reduces strategic dependence and strengthens “sovereign decision-making”. He cited examples of Russia, China and the United States, which have demonstrated Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) capabilities, like docking spacecraft. Having an expertise in such tasks can help protect and sustain high-value Space assets, Indurti says, adding that it requires “persistent monitoring, rapid anomaly detection and independent verification — not reliance solely on foreign tracking networks.”

Azista aims to collaborate with Indian companies to support SSA missions through high-precision optical payloads (that is, the objects transported to Space through rockets) designed for Non-Earth Imaging (NEI) applications, like monitoring Space debris or satellites.

Additionally, it has several defence, civilian and commercial implications. “With mega-constellations such as Starlink (owned by Elon Musk) and OneWeb, collision risks are increasing and orbital congestion is rising. Insurance markets demand better tracking. Operators need verification services. Here, SSA capabilities support Space traffic management, collision avoidance, debris monitoring, insurance risk modelling and satellite health verification”, he told The Indian Express.

Mentoring by ISRO-SAC

Last month, Azista Space laid the foundation stone of India’s first private-sector Electro-Optical Payload Factory in Sanand, near Ahmedabad. The company also signed a Rs 500 crore Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government to establish the new facility where payloads will be designed, developed, assembled and tested using “indigenous technology”.

The Managing Director of Azista, M Srinivas Reddy, said the Sanand facility will produce indigenously developed optical payloads targeting an annual capacity of 30 high-resolution imaging payloads. He added that experts from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad guided the company in building its capabilities from the ground up.

By 2027, the company plans to enhance its capabilities so that imaging for an entire country can be conducted in a single orbital path, with the optical payload having a 500-km swathe.

Last April, the Gujarat government notified the Space Tech Policy 2025-2030, stating that it would partner with the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), ISRO and Department of Space to boost the domestic Space tech industry.

Gujarat’s Minister of Science and Technology, Arjun Modhwadia, told The Indian Express that incentives would be offered under the policy. The state government can offer up to 25% capital subsidy on eligible fixed capital investments. It may also offer a 25% subsidy on launch costs for satellites upto Rs five crore and a 30% reimbursement for Indian patent filings (upto Rs 50 lakh).