As per the Indian Space Situational Awareness Report 2025, it was the busiest year since the beginning of the space age. It was marked by a rapid rise in global launch activity, satellite applications, and an increasing worry over orbital debris. According to the same, 315 of the 328 launch attempts, which were made in the world in 2025 were very successful.
These missions put 4,651 new space objects into targeted orbits, 4,198 of which are operational satellites. The number of space objects has increased by an incredible 74.5 percent/year as against 2,963 objects launched in 254 missions in 2024, and 3,135 objects launched in 212 missions in 2023.
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The increasing utilisation of rideshare launch flights was one of the main causes of this increase. The Transporter 12, 13, 14, & 15 flights each delivered more than 70 payloads; they were launched on January 14, March 15, June 2, & Nov 28, respectively. On Nov 28 alone, a record 140 payloads were launched. However Soyuz-2.1b delivered 52 payloads on December 28, two groups of Starlink satellites were deployed at the same time on April 28.
The 10,749 launched Starlink satellites, including 9,396 are in orbit, and 1,353 others have fallen back to the atmosphere of Earth. The report also raised concerns regarding space debris, and stated that 1,911 objects of space debris (including 1,002 recognised spacecraft, 657 debris objects, 108 rocket bodies and 144 undetermined objects) would re-enter the atmosphere in 2025.
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The experts have alerted that the number of objects entering low Earth orbit is rapidly growing, posing risks, although no notable orbital fragmentations events were observed last year. With around 160,000 close-approach alerts between satellites and other objects, orbital congestion has grown in importance.
Many experts stated, the count of operating satellites in the nearest future can be higher than the amount of observed space debris, so space traffic management is an urgent global issue. The report cited four lunar missions, launched in 2025, as a part of four private Moon missions, and pointed to the increasing role of the private sector in lunar exploration.
With one of them, Blue Ghost Mission 1, history was made by performing the first private soft landing on the Moon. India also made some significant progress in 2025. Noteworthy missions were GSLV-F15/NVS-02, PSLV-C61/EOS-9, GSLV-F16/NISAR, LVM-M5/CMS-03, and LVM-M6/BlueBird Block-2. The GSLV-F15 mission was particularly remarkable considering that the launch was the 100th launch by India.
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The successful launch of the NASA-ISRO cooperative mission NISAR on July 30, 2025, coupled with the successful deployment of CMS-03, was a significant highlight. Nevertheless, a third-stage anomaly led to a setback of PSLV-C61 and EOS-9 was unable to enter orbit. Six Indian spacecrafts and two well-known satellites were launched in 2025.
ISSAR-2025 results highlight the sheer rate of development of space not only on the Earth but also the necessity to establish improved international cooperation in order to address the increasing problem of orbital crowding and debris disposal.
Author: Trilok Singh is with CEO here.
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