Kessler Syndrome and rising orbital congestion threaten the long-term sustainability of low Earth orbit. Discuss India’s contribution to space debris and the role of Project NETRA.

Introduction: ESA's Space Debris Office Annual Report 2024 tracks ~40,500 objects larger than 10 cm in Earth orbit; ISRO announced a target of debris-free Indian missions by 2030 under the Debris Free Space Mission Initiative, addressing the Kessler 1978 cascade hypothesis.

Body: First, India's debris footprint includes the PSLV-C37 upper stage, fragments from Mission Shakti ASAT (27 March 2019), and Cartosat-2C debris (2017), each adding to LEO congestion. Second, Project NETRA — ISRO's space-situational awareness facility at Bengaluru, inaugurated in 2022 — and the IS4OM Control Centre now track 28,000+ catalogued objects with collision-avoidance analytics. Third, India is a party to the Outer Space Treaty 1967 and aligns with UN COPUOS Long-Term Sustainability Guidelines 2019; POEM-3 demonstrated controlled re-entry in 2024.

Way forward: Demonstrate an active debris-removal mission by 2030, push for a legally binding global ASAT moratorium at UN COPUOS, and expand NETRA into deep-space tracking under DoS.