A successful launch is just the first step in every space mission. Space assets need continuous guidance to survive in an increasingly busy orbital environment, much like GPS is used to navigate ground traffic. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) disclosed last week that it carried out a record 140 collision-avoidance manoeuvres (CAMs) in 2025 to safeguard Indian space assets—the greatest number for a year in the 2010-2025 period—as a sobering warning of this increasing "space traffic."
Isro constantly uses Indian space assets to monitor all space objects up close. In order to prevent a critical near approach that can result in a collision with crucial space assets like satellites or spacecraft, CAM is required. CAM is carried out by using the fuel that is kept on board to propel the satellite.

One CAM was carried out especially for the Isro-NASA joint mission, NISAR, which was launched in July of last year, according to the Indian Space Situational Awareness Report for 2025.
Four CAMs were completed for geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) missions and fourteen for low earth orbit (LEO) missions. Furthermore, during Chandrayaan-2's orbital movements in January and July of last year, two CAMs were carried out.
According to the paper, over 1.50 lakh alerts for India's earth-orbiting satellites were sent out in 2025 by the Combined Space Operations Center, a US-based hub for monitoring space activity.

"To rule out any possible close approach with other nearby space objects within a few days of the movements, all manoeuvre plans, including those of the CAMs, were submitted to close approach risk analysis. For LEO satellites, 82 manoeuvre plans were updated to prevent post-maneuver close encounters with other space objects. In a similar vein, it stated that in order to prevent post-manoeuvre conjunctions for GEO satellites, manoeuvre plans had to be changed twice.
Scientists carried out 563 LEO movements, including 14 special CAMs; 519 GEO manoeuvres, including 4 unique CAMs; and 16 for the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, including 2 specific CAMs, based on the CAMs and alarms.

Additionally, Isro stated that 82 manoeuvre plans were updated to prevent LEO satellites from coming into close proximity to other space objects after a manoeuvre. Similarly, in order to prevent post-maneuver conjunctions with GEO satellites, manoeuvre plans have to be updated.