Operators of Bangladesh Satellite-1 adjusted its position in August to avoid a close pass by debris from India’s INSAT-1A. The satellite company’s managing director said the closest approach on August 13 was 852 metres.
A NASA warning reached Bangladesh Satellite Company Ltd.’s ground control station on the evening of August 9, according to managing director Muhammad Imadur Rahman, who spoke to Prothom Alo. The alert said a fragment was rapidly approaching Bangladesh Satellite-1, or BS-1. Engineers monitored the object for four days and considered whether to move the satellite.
The fragment came from India’s INSAT-1A. The Indian Space Research Organisation says the satellite launched on April 10, 1982, and was decommissioned on September 6 that year after technical problems. Space debris includes defunct satellite parts and other objects left in orbit. A collision can damage or destroy an active spacecraft.
Rahman said engineers decided on August 13 to move BS-1 slightly to the left. They waited for the fragment to pass, then returned the satellite to its previous position. He said it suffered no damage. Staff at the Gazipur ground station stayed on alert, while vacations were cancelled and NASA continued to send location updates. Government officials, including the telecommunications minister and the prime minister’s adviser on telecommunications, followed the situation.
BSCL says the satellite faced similar close-approach risks in 2021 and 2025. French company Thales Alenia Space built BS-1, which launched in May 2018. Bangladesh’s satellite company took over control in 2021. More than 50 engineers work at the Gazipur control centre. BS-1 has 40 transponders, half for domestic use and half available to serve customers abroad. Mohammad Khalilur Rahman, a satellite specialist at BRAC University, told Prothom Alo that manoeuvring a spacecraft to avoid a collision requires considerable expertise.