INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Japanese orbital debris removal technology startup Astroscale is going to be working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on
separate mission phases that together will aim to accomplish the removal of a large body currently on orbit, the spent upper stage of a
Japanese rocket.Astroscale, which was founded in 2013, is focused entirely on cleaning up orbital space, which it sees as a necessary step
for long-term sustainable activity on orbit
Space debris has become a hot-button topic in the space industry, with current projections anticipating massive increases in the number of
active satellites orbiting the planet, thanks to the uptick in satellite constellation projects in the works from commercial operators
including SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb.The JAXA mission aims to complete its first phase by the end of 2022, and Astroscale will support that
phase by building, launching and operating a satellite that will observe and acquire data on the rocket upper stage that the second phase
founder and CEO Nobu Okada in a press release
This mission will be a world-first demo of commercial orbital debris removal if all goes to plan, a key step in proving that its technology
can meet the needs of this growing opportunity.Earlier this year, a near-miss of two defunct orbital spacecraft made headlines, and
Astroscale and others like it could, combined with other initiatives like more granular tracking and information sharing among satellite
operators, provide a much more sustainable in-space operating environment for the range of commercial activities either planned or in
progress for orbital space.
