Astroscale

Proposing to aid in the removal of orbital debris through the provision of End of Life (EOL) and Active Debris Removal (ADR) services.

Created: 2019-01-22

Updated: 2021-07-28

Company - Astroscale

Founded
Country: 2013; UK,Japan

Funding: $191M

Website: Astroscale

Social

Service

Classification: In-Space Transportation

Category: Active Debris Removal (ADR)
On-Orbit Servicing

Fields: End of Life (EOL)
In-Space Satellite Servicing

Status: 3) Development

First launch: 2020

Selected as the commercial partner for Phase I of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) first debris removal project, a groundbreaking step by Japan to commercialize space debris removal.
The JAXA Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration project (CRD2) consists of two mission phases to achieve one of the world’s first debris removal missions of a large object, the first of which has been awarded to Astroscale. This first phase will be demonstrated by the end of the Japan Fiscal Year 2022 and will focus on data acquisition on an upper stage Japanese rocket body. Astroscale will be responsible for the manufacturing, launch and operations of the satellite that will characterize the rocket body, acquiring and delivering movement observational data to better understand the debris environment.
ELSA-d, or End of Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration, comprises a 175-kilogram servicer spacecraft and a 17-kilogram client satellite both set to launch March 20 as part of a GK Launch Services’ Soyuz-2 rideshare mission lifting off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
Astroscale is also working on a separate spacecraft called Elsa-m, designed to capture and de-orbit three or four objects in a single mission for a constellation customer.
Auburn said Astroscale is also bidding this year for a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) contract to de-orbit a discarded upper stage of a rocket, without a docking plate. He said the mission will happen “probably by 2025,” with a spacecraft that will require “some kind of robotic arm.”

Link

Sources

Most sources should be linked in the texts and headings as revealed by mouse-over, but here are they listed for visibility.

[1] https://astroscale.com/

[2] https://astroscale.com/astroscale-selected-as-commercial-partner-for-jaxas-commercial-removal-of-debris-demonstration-project/

News, Research, Projects and Patents

Title	Type	Date	Summary
Astroscale moving into GEO satellite servicing market	News, Acquisition	2020-06-03	Astroscale announced June 3 it is acquiring the intellectual property of the satellite-servicing company Effective Space Solutions. The move positions Astroscale’s U.S. subsidiary to become a direct competitor to Northrop Grumman in the geostationary satellite servicing market.
Astroscale ships its space junk removal demonstration satellite for March 2021 mission	News	2020-12-22	Japanese startup Astroscale has shipped its ELSA-d spacecraft to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan, where it will be integrated with a Soyuz rocket for a launch scheduled for March of next year. This is a crucial mission for Astroscale, since it’ll be the first in-space demonstration of the company’s technology for de-orbiting space debris, a cornerstone of its proposed space sustainability service business.