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 launched the first commercial in-orbit demonstrator ELSA-d at an altitude of 550 km.
The Astroscale-led consortium will review alternative means of uploading commands to a satellite, including expanding ground station networks, data relays, and using a Galileo Signal-In-Space service.
The European Space Agency selected Astroscale Ltd. to lead a collision avoidance study that is part of the CREAM activities in ESA’s Space Safety Program.
A team of Astroscale-led experts based in the UK and Europe will develop concepts using inter-satellite links, large ground station networks accessible as a service, and on-board processing to reduce the timeframe from alert to likely collision.
Astroscale stated that the safety of ELSA-d and the orbital environment is their top priority.
Astroscale reported good progress in resolving the anomalous spacecraft conditions identified with ELSA-d.
Astroscale aims to deorbit the servicer and client in a controlled descent that will take seven to ten years to complete.
Astroscale paused the demonstration three weeks ago to troubleshoot undisclosed problems.
Astroscale's decision to maneuver the servicer into position for another capture attempt followed discussions with regulators and insurers.
Astroscale is preparing to resume an attempt to capture a satellite acting as debris in low Earth orbit.
Astroscale has started moving its 175-kilogram servicer spacecraft closer to the 17-kilogram client satellite.
The National In-Orbit Servicing Control Centre was developed by Astroscale in partnership with the Satellite Applications Catapult and funded by UK Research & Innovation.
Astroscale launched the first end-to-end demonstration mission to remove debris from space, ELSA-d, in March 2021.
Astroscale launched the ELSA-d end-to-end demonstration mission to remove debris from space in March 2021.
The ELSA-d mission is operated in the UK from the National In-Orbit Servicing Control Centre, a specialist facility developed by Astroscale in partnership with the Satellite Applications Catapult and funded by UK Research & Innovation.
Astroscale operates the ELSA-d mission in the UK from the National In-Orbit Servicing Control Centre.
On 2022-01-31, Astroscale Japan signed a loan agreement with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Japan Finance Corporation valued at JPY 3 billion (approximately USD $24,000,000).
The loan to Astroscale Japan falls under Japan Finance Corporation’s New Business Development Loans plan that was launched in 2000 to support small and medium sized businesses with high growth potential.
On 2022-01-18, Astroscale Japan was awarded funding from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) to advance on-orbit servicing interface technologies.
In July 2021, Astroscale Japan was selected by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry to research and develop extra-vehicular general-purpose robotic hand and arm technologies for spacecraft servicing in orbit and lunar environments.