Promoting responsibility in space from the UK
UK-based satellite servicing and space debris removal company Astroscale has reached an important milestone in its mission to promote long-term orbital sustainability.
This week the ESA-supported firm opened a new manufacturing and operations facility at Harwell campus in Oxfordshire.
ESA’s ongoing collaboration with Astroscale forms part of the agency’s drive to promote European leadership in the responsible use of space.
The rising number of satellites in space coupled with poor compliance with mitigation measures in the past is driving increasing amounts of debris in orbit, posing a growing threat to functioning satellites and the vital services they provide to people on Earth.
Since 2013, Astroscale has been striving to address this problem by advancing the safe and sustainable development of space.
The company is developing innovative technology – consisting of a docking plate mechanism for magnetic or robotic capture – to ensure that satellites are disposed of at the end of their missions without creating additional space debris.
It is also working on services that will remove existing space junk from low Earth orbit and service large satellites in geostationary orbit.
Astroscale’s new facility – called the Zeus building – includes a clean room for building and testing satellites, a mission operations centre, and office space to host 120 staff.
The state-of-the-art site is crucial to the company’s plan to expand its commercial offering in the years to come.
Earlier this year, Astroscale celebrated successful operations for its ELSA-d mission, which is the world’s first demonstration of the magnetic capture technology required to remove defunct satellites from low Earth orbit.
The company is now building on this success by developing a pioneering mission, called ELSA-M.
This next-generation servicer will be capable of removing multiple small telecommunications satellites from orbit once they reach the end of their operational service.
The satellites will be captured using a magnetic mechanism which connects with a docking plate, a commercial product that Astroscale is developing to integrate into new satellites to prepare them for future removal or in-orbit servicing, such as refuelling.
The ELSA-M servicer is being designed and developed under an ESA Partnership project with satellite operator OneWeb, as part of ESA’s Sunrise Programme.
Set to launch in 2024, ELSA-M will be manufactured and operated from the Zeus building at Harwell campus, enabling the firm to rapidly offer commercial debris removal services to satellite constellation customers.
Astroscale’s new facility forms part of a thriving community of organisations – including ESA and many other partners – at Harwell campus.
Harwell is a key driver of the rapidly expanding UK space industry, which is strongly committed to advancing orbital sustainability.
The UK Space Agency recently announced that it is funding two UK companies to develop separate concepts for missions to remove hazardous space debris. The missions are being designed by Astroscale and another space sustainability firm called ClearSpace.
During its Zeus premises opening, Astroscale confirmed it will develop a robotic arm system to capture these derelict objects.
