A number of startups have emerged aimed at cleaning up low Earth orbit, which is currently crowded with millions of pieces of space junk – including anything from broken satellites, to rocket fragments, to debris from vehicle stages or space missions. While the task of cleaning up LEO is an important one, there’s one problem, […]
Astroscale successfully demos in-space capture-and-release system to clear orbital debris
Astroscale hit a major milestone Wednesday, when its space junk removal demo satellite that’s currently in orbit successfully captured and released a client spacecraft using a magnetic system. The End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission was launched in March, with the goal of validating the company’s orbital debris removal tech. The demonstrator package, which was […]