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 plans to launch two spacecraft for the ELSA-d demonstration: a 180-kilogram servicer designed to catch debris and a 20-kilogram satellite to act as mock debris.
Both Astroscale and ClearSpace won contracts to participate in the Sunrise Project, a public-private partnership led by OneWeb and the European Space Agency to explore advanced technologies including active debris removal.
On 2019-07-09 Astroscale Ltd. was awarded a contract under the Sunrise Project.
OneWeb is partnering with ESA and Astroscale to advance Active Debris Removal concepts, technologies, and business strategies.
The Astroscale contract under the Sunrise Project has a period of 12 months and is expected to be completed by April 2020.
Under the Sunrise Project contract Astroscale will improve upon heritage capabilities being developed for its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission.
Astroscale will open a U.S. office in the Denver, Colorado area using the new funding.
Astroscale secured an additional US $30,000,000 in an extension of its Series D investment round.
The Series D extension brought Astroscale's total Series D funding to US $80,000,000.
Astroscale’s next satellite, End-of-Life Service by Astroscale demonstration (ELSA-d), is scheduled for launch in 2020 to test technologies to identify, approach, and capture objects in orbit using a larger servicer satellite that will track and dock with a smaller client spacecraft.
Astroscale raised an additional $30 million, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $132,000,000.
Astroscale added $30,000,000 to an earlier $50,000,000 Series D round that the company raised in October 2018.
Astroscale's total capital raised reached US $140,000,000 after the Series D extension.
Astroscale opened a new office in Denver, Colorado on 2019-04-10.
Astroscale expanded to Japan in 2015 and to the United Kingdom in 2017, with a United States office planned to open in 2019.
Astroscale plans to launch its first technology demonstration satellite for orbital debris removal, ELSA-d, in early 2020.
Astroscale established Astroscale Holdings Inc. (ASHD) on 2019-02-01 as a new entity based in Tokyo that will serve as the company’s global headquarters.
Under the no-funds-exchanged agreement, ESA will provide Astroscale with collision assessments for the ELSA-d Chaser, including collision avoidance manoeuvre recommendations and screening.
The $50,000,000 funding round is the fourth round of funding raised by Astroscale.
Astroscale planned to establish an entity in the United States in 2019.