'A new space debris solution for global customers’: Samtel CEO Puneet Kaura on India-Japan partnership

India's Samtel Avionics and Japan's BULL are exploring a collaboration to develop orbital debris management technologies, with potential applications for protecting India's strategic space infrastructure and serving international customers.

As India expands its military space capabilities, satellites supporting surveillance, navigation and secure communications are becoming increasingly important. However, growing congestion in Earth's orbit, including defunct satellites and fragments from collisions, presents risks to operational spacecraft.

The proposed India-Japan collaboration seeks to address this challenge by combining two different approaches to space debris management.

Samtel's Puneet Kaura: Combining Two Technologies

Speaking to WION's Defence Pulse, Samtel Avionics Managing Director and CEO Puneet Kaura outlined two areas of cooperation. "We are looking at two ways to expand this collaboration," Kaura said, explaining that the companies would explore co-development opportunities.

"The space debris solution that BULL has is a passive solution, and we are looking at an active solution from Samtel," he said. Kaura added that combining the technologies could create a product for global customers, while also opening opportunities to offer BULL's existing technology to Indian customers as an indigenous product.

BULL's HORN: How the Technology Works

Japanese company BULL has developed HORN, a passive post-mission disposal device designed to reduce the time spent in orbit by spacecraft after their missions end. BULL CEO and founder Yasuhito Uto explained that the device is installed on satellites or launch vehicles before deployment.

"After the spacecraft's mission is over, we start to deploy huge membranes," Uto said. He explained that the triangular membrane increases atmospheric drag, helping spacecraft gradually descend and reducing their orbital lifetime. The technology is intended to prevent defunct spacecraft from remaining in orbit unnecessarily.

India-Japan Cooperation and Military Space Security

Under the proposed partnership, Samtel and BULL will examine integrating HORN with Samtel's Debris Removal Vehicle, alongside technical compatibility, customisation and commercial opportunities. The initiative also has potential strategic relevance for India, whose armed forces depend on satellite-based communications and surveillance.

The companies have yet to announce an operationally demonstrated integrated system. Their next steps will determine how the collaboration can deliver an indigenous orbital debris management capability and establish a foothold in the international space sustainability market.