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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COSMIC will be developed, built, and operated from Astroscale’s Zeus facility in the UK.
The servicer used in Astroscale’s 2021 demonstration later lost half its thrusters and was unable to recapture the spacecraft to complete a controlled descent intended to jointly burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
ELSA-M is slated to launch during Astroscale’s fiscal year ending in April 2026.
Astroscale UK signed a contract with Eutelsat OneWeb in July 2024 for the final phase of the ELSA-M in-orbit demonstration as part of the Sunrise Partnership Project.
Astroscale holds a contract from Japan’s space agency to de-orbit a defunct upper stage of an H-2A rocket using a servicer equipped with a robotic arm.
The UK Space Agency awarded funds to consortiums led by Astroscale and ClearSpace to continue developing a servicer capable of removing two spacecraft from low Earth orbit in 2026.
Astroscale UK was awarded a GBP £1.95 million (excluding tax) contract by the UK Space Agency to continue development of the COSMIC spacecraft.
Airbus Defence and Space Limited and Astroscale Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 2024-08-13 to explore collaborative opportunities in on-orbit servicing and space debris removal.
Astroscale France plans to expand its team to 20 employees by the end of 2024.
Astroscale Ltd (Astroscale UK), the UK subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc., secured EUR 13.95 million from the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency to support the final phase of the ELSA-M in-orbit demonstration.
The ELSA-d mission launched in 2021 and validated Astroscale’s end-of-life technologies by completing repeated magnetic capture and controlled close-approach rendezvous operations between two spacecraft in orbit.
ELSA-M is designed and built by Astroscale UK at the Harwell Campus in Oxford.
The UKRefuel mission, in collaboration with ClearSpace and Astroscale, aims to launch a satellite refueling service to low Earth orbit by 2027.
Astroscale reported 1,790,000,000 JPY in revenue for the fiscal year that ended in April 2023.
Astroscale shares jumped on their first day of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on 2024-06-05, giving the company a valuation of about $1,000,000,000.
The Astroscale Prototype Servicer for Refueling (APS-R) spacecraft will operate in geostationary orbit and be able to perform multiple refueling missions using hydrazine propellant.
Astroscale reported a net loss of 9,260,000,000 JPY for the fiscal year that ended in April 2023.
Astroscale sold shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on 2024-06-05 at prices roughly 40% lower than during a private financing round late last year.
Astroscale announced plans on 2024-05-01 to go public by offering 20.8 million shares.
Astroscale U.S. received a $25,500,000 contract from the U.S. Space Force last year to develop a refueling spacecraft.