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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The UK Space Agency awarded funding to Astroscale and ClearSpace to research a UK-led mission to remove junk from space.
Astroscale has raised $191,000,000 to date, including $51,000,000 in its latest Series E funding round.
Consortiums led by ClearSpace and Astroscale received just under £700,000 between them to complete mission feasibility studies by the end of March.
Through the European Space Agency’s Sunrise program, Astroscale is working with OneWeb to develop the ELSA-M servicer.
Astroscale plans to release the ELSA-d client satellite later 2021 at a greater distance and then test automated flight software to capture it again.
MDA is partnering with Astroscale to provide capture robotics and robotic operations expertise for the study.
Astroscale plans to launch an ADRAS-J inspection spacecraft on Rocket Lab in 2023 ahead of a removal attempt that could take place in 2025.
Astroscale is developing ELSA-m under a public-private partnership with the European Space Agency and OneWeb.
Astroscale launched the End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) spacecraft in March and continues to perform tests with a tiny client satellite acting as debris.
Under the Active Debris Removal Phase 0-A Feasibility Study funded by the UK Space Agency, Astroscale and ClearSpace are tasked with researching how to de-orbit two defunct satellites that were not built with retrieval and removal in mind.
Astroscale intends to work with satellite operators to deliver on-orbit servicing and Active Debris Removal programmes.
Astroscale developed a Life Extension (LEX) service for geostationary orbit (GEO) spacecraft to extend their operational time in orbit.
Astroscale favors reducing the PMD timeframe for LEO constellation satellites toward five years with the support of disposal services.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) awarded a contract to Astroscale to inspect a spent Japanese rocket stage in orbit with later plans to remove the stage.
Astroscale seeks partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the UK Space Agency, and the European Space Agency to support space sustainability goals.
Astroscale performed the first release and capture of a client spacecraft on ELSA-d on 2021-08-25 by deploying the small client spacecraft from the main spacecraft and then capturing it using a magnetic mechanism.
Rocket Lab won a contract from Astroscale for the launch of the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) spacecraft on 2021-09-21.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) awarded Tokyo-based Astroscale a contract in 2020 for the ADRAS-J mission as part of its two-phase Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration project.
Astroscale Japan signed an agreement with Rocket Lab USA, Inc. to launch the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) spacecraft.
Astroscale’s End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) successfully tested its magnetic capture system on Wednesday, 2021-08-25 (UTC).