Pre-launch orbit and disposal-plan studies for Indian small-satellite teams
TL;DR Duefall sells a fixed-fee study, done before launch, that tells a small-satellite team how crowded its candidate orbits are, how long the satellite will stay up after the mission ends, and whether that meets the 5-year disposal target. The output is a report ready to drop into an authorisation filing. Satellite makers and university teams pay per mission.
By the end of 2024, 136 Indian spacecraft had gone to Earth orbit, private and academic ones included[1]. In 2024 India also told the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee that all Indian missions, government and private, should be debris-free by 2030. That means disposal success above 99% and no more than 5 years left in LEO after the mission ends[1].
ISRO has the flight-dynamics staff to meet that, and it cut Cartosat-2's leftover orbital life from more than 30 years to under 4[1]. But what about a startup or college team building its first cubesat? They usually have no such person. Many of these satellites carry no thrusters either, so the orbit picked before launch decides almost everything about how and when they come down.
What it does, in regulatory terms: engineering analysis and filing support only. Duefall does not authorise anything. IN-SPACe decides, and the operator signs the application.
For each mission, the team supplies mass, area, attitude mode, any propulsion or drag device, and the rideshare orbits on offer. Duefall runs three checks. The first maps the debris and satellite density at each candidate altitude and inclination. The second estimates orbital lifetime across a range of solar activity. The third tests the disposal plan against the 5-year limit. The result is a short report with assumptions stated, plus a debris-mitigation section written for the filing. A self-serve tool handles quick reruns when the launch slot changes.
I reframed the seed. "AI that predicts and avoids collisions" assumes a satellite can move, and many Indian smallsats can't. For them the useful decision comes before launch, and day-to-day conjunction alerts are a separate business altogether.
The buyer is a satellite maker's mission lead or a university project's faculty adviser, paying from the mission budget before the filing goes in. The fee is a fixed price per mission, with a lower rate for student teams. Nobody in India publishes a price for this kind of study, so your first ten sales will set it.
India's Space Policy 2023 asks IN-SPACe to set a framework for safe operations under international debris guidelines[2]. The DFSM goal declared in 2024 adds a 5-year limit[1]. The US FCC adopted its own 5-year rule in September 2022[3], and ESA moved new missions from 25 years to 5[4]. If your team wants foreign customers then you face the same limit from several directions.
There is no public figure for spending on pre-launch debris studies in India. The countable base is 136 Indian spacecraft launched by end-2024[1], a small number that is growing.
For adjacent context - ESA counts about 11,000 active payloads among roughly 40,000 tracked objects, with debris near 550 km roughly matching active satellites in number[5]. That orbit band is where much rideshare traffic goes.
One US space-safety firm offers a free tracking tool and paid orbit-simulation software[6], aimed at operators already in orbit. A Bengaluru space-surveillance startup raised $50M in December 2025 for space surveillance and sells mostly to defence buyers[7]. Free agency tools exist, but they need a skilled user. As far as I can tell, nobody in India sells a fixed-fee, filing-ready study to teams with no flight-dynamics staff.
| Difficulty | Moderate (38/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹55–95 L |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The physics is well understood. The hard part is credibility, because a first-time team trusts a lifetime estimate only if someone with flight-dynamics experience signs it. The work is lumpy too, since launches slip and every mission is a one-off sale.
Duefall itself needs no space licence, because the operator files the application and signs it. Your customers' approvals shape what you sell, though.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI sign off a lifetime estimate or a compliance claim. A flight-dynamics engineer has to own every number that goes into a filing.
Want to work out the AI layer for Duefall? Talk to Yash →
I like this for a founder with flight-dynamics or mission-analysis experience who is happy to run a lean, expert-led practice. If you're hoping for a venture-scale software company in two years then it isn't the one. First, prove that five Indian teams will pay a fixed fee for a study before their filing, and that IN-SPACe accepts the output without rework.
Plan for roughly ₹55–95 L over 6–9 months, most of it on flight-dynamics staff and the self-serve tool. The software is cheap next to the people.
No. Duefall sells analysis and the operator files with IN-SPACe. You need company registration and GST, and you should confirm with IN-SPACe what debris content it expects in a filing.
Yes, and it may sell better abroad. The US FCC and ESA both apply a 5-year disposal limit, so foreign teams face the same question your Indian customers do.
The free Duefall validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the authorisation and debris-rule checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for satellite teams, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Duefall or something close to it? The make-or-break work is earning enough trust that a first-time team files your disposal analysis under its own name, and I can help you plan how to earn it. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.