Astroscale is a public, on-orbit servicing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, committed to the safe and sustainable development of space. As the first private company dedicated to in-orbit servicing across all orbits, Astroscale develops innovative solutions for end-of-life services, active debris removal, in-situ space situational awareness, and life extension of satellites. They work with government and commercial stakeholders like JAXA, U.S. Space Force, ESA, and OneWeb to develop norms and technologies for responsible space operations, aiming to mitigate the growing hazard of space debris.
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Astroscale Holdings' Japanese subsidiary, Astroscale, signed a launch contract with NewSpace India Limited for the ISSA-J1 mission on September 11, 2025.
Astroscale's CEO, Hidetaka Kato, evaluated over 10 launch companies on technical performance, track record, and pricing before selecting NSIL for the ISSA-J1 launch.
Astroscale Holdings disclosed that its subsidiary Astroscale signed a research contract with the Japan Science and Technology Agency to study in-space fuel replenishment technology for cooperative satellites.
Astroscale's project, adopted by the program in January 2025, focuses on developing domestic chemical fuel replenishment technology for multiple orbits and electric propulsion.
Astroscale will combine its past rendezvous operations technology with robotics, computer vision, and fuel transfer technologies for the fuel replenishment demonstration.
Astroscale Ltd (Astroscale UK), D-Orbit, and ClearSpace jointly secured GBP 690,000 excluding VAT from the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology for a Regulatory Sandbox project to test Rendezvous and Proximity Operations missions.
The United Kingdom permitted Astroscale to test debris removal capabilities in 2021 under the End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-D) program.
Astroscale has demonstrated key rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) technologies by approaching a rocket upper stage within 15 meters during the ADRAS-J mission.
Astroscale Japan was selected under Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Small Business Innovation Research program to advance debris removal technologies.
Astroscale Japan Inc. will transition to Phase II of the development for its ISSA-J1 mission.
Astroscale validated the onboard collision avoidance system during its ADRAS-J mission.
Astroscale aims to develop technologies to safely and precisely approach and inspect large debris with the ISSA-J1 mission.
Defunct objects do not provide GPS data or other critical telemetry, making RPO more complex for Astroscale.
Astroscale independently designed the 2024-11-30 15-meter approach as an ambitious objective in addition to JAXA’s baseline mission requirements.
The Astroscale satellite is scheduled to launch in 2026-04-01.
Astroscale, Starfish Space, Kall Morris, and D-Orbit are working on ADR technologies with some government-sponsored missions.
Astroscale plans to integrate ELSA-M subsystems during 2025 after finalizing algorithms and completing the critical design review.
Astroscale plans a launch of ELSA-M likely occurring in the second quarter of 2026.
Dr. Clair Martin is the EVP of Astroscale US.
The British subsidiaries of Astroscale and ClearSpace each received about 2.35 million British pounds before tax on 2024-09-11 to continue de-risking robotic arm capture systems and debris de-tumbling capabilities.