Bengaluru has become home to Asia’s first dedicated command and control centre for space domain awareness. The state-of-the-art facility was inaugurated Friday at the newly opened global headquarters of Digantara, a space situational awareness (SSA) company. The 25,000 sq ft headquarters houses a first-of-its-kind command centre focused solely on monitoring and managing space traffic.
Ensuring Safety and Sustainability of Satellite Operations
This advanced facility will play a vital role in ensuring the safety and sustainability of satellite operations around the world by tracking objects in orbit. Isro chairman S Somanath and experts from around 10 countries, including from global space agencies like European Space Agency (ESA), French space agency CNES and Nasa were given a review of the facility.
Statement from Digantara CEO Anirudh Sharma
“Today marks a pivotal expansion for Digantara as we enhance our ability to provide accurate and timely space situational data to meet growing international demand. Our new facilities will serve as a platform for easing global space operations,” Digantara CEO Anirudh Sharma said.
Purpose of the Headquarters
In addition to the command centre, the headquarters will serve as an assembly, integration, and testing facility as Digantara prepares to launch a constellation of satellites dedicated to space-based space surveillance. This constellation aims to address current data inadequacies from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives.
Commitment to Cleaner and Safer Space Missions
At a recent meeting of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, Digantara CTO Tanveer Ahmed highlighted the company’s commitment to developing infrastructure for cleaner and safer space missions, aligning with Isro’s priorities.
Strategic Growth and Funding
“The expanded operations will position Digantara as a hub for international space situational awareness efforts and customer engagement. The company recently raised $12 million in Series A financing from investors like Aditya Birla Ventures and SIDBI to fund this strategic growth,” the firm said.
Development of Space-Mission Assurance Platform
Digantara is building end-to-end infrastructure to address the difficulties of space operations and situational awareness through its pioneering Space – Mission Assurance Platform (Space-MAP). “Space-MAP will serve as a one-stop solution for all space operations supporting stakeholders across the space value chain and life cycle of a spacecraft mission. This platform will be as powerful and sophisticated as Google Maps, serving as a foundational layer for space operations and astrodynamics research,” the firm added.
