The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThe first mission to remove a piece of space debris from orbit, ClearSpace-1 will rendezvous with, capture and safely bring down a satellite for a safe atmospheric reentry
ESA's 95 kg PROBA-1 satellite, launched in 2001, will be cleared away from its valuable low-Earth orbit to ensure it does not add to the space debris problem. The ClearSpace-1 mission will remove the PROBA-1 satellite from orbit as the first-ever mission to remove an unprepared and uncooperative object from orbit through highly precise, complex, close proximity operations, all in the name of cleaning up space. While the mission was dreamt up by the ESA Clean Space team, the Agency is developing the mission as in in-orbit demonstration with OHB SE leading an industrial team with the Swiss company ClearSpace and other sub-contractors. The mission will demonstrate the technologies needed for active debris removal and as a first step to establishing a new and sustainable commercial sector in space.
Launch (planned): 2028
Industrial team: Lead by OHB SE
Target object: ESA's PROBA-1 satellite
Target dimensions: 0.6 m × 0.6 m × 0.8 m