Astroscale secures funding for Final Phase of ELSA-M In-Orbit demo

Astroscale, a specialist in space debris removal, has secured finding to complete the Final Phase of ELSA-M. This is an in-orbit demonstration of space debris removal.

Specifically, Astroscale UK – a subsidiary of Japan-based Astroscale Holdings – will receive £11.78 from the UK Space Agency and ESA.

ELSA-M stands for End-of-Life by Astroscale-Multiple.

Sunrise

The funding was released following the securing of the contract with Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the Sunrise Partnership Project. This is a public-private partnership between ESA and the Eutelsat Group, and part of ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme. It aims “to develop solutions for future generation telecommunication satellite missions”. Both the ARTES and Sunrise are supported, in turn, by the UK Space Agency.

Final Phase

ELSA-M Phase 4 includes flight model assembly, integration and testing, launch and commissioning. It also covers in-orbit demonstration activities, and full in-house operations of successfully docking, de-orbiting, and releasing of the Eutelsat OneWeb client spacecraft.

The Final Phase of the mission will launch some time after April 2026 (it was originally scheduled to launch towards the end of 2024).

Astroscale UK, which is based in Harwell, outlines:

“ELSA-M will be the world’s first commercial end-of-life service for prepared satellites, meaning satellites designed with technologies such as an interface that will enable docking and removal. This groundbreaking mission, designed and built by Astroscale UK at the Harwell Campus in Oxford, improves on the capabilities developed and successfully demonstrated by ELSA-d.”

“The ELSA-d mission, launched in 2021, validated Astroscale’s end-of-life technologies, completing unprecedented demonstrations in-orbit, including repeated magnetic capture and controlled close-approach rendezvous operations between the two spacecraft in orbit.”

ELSA-M

ELSA-M is to provide a debris removal service to satellite operators, such as Eutelsat’s OneWeb .

UK and European Space Agency funding has already helped with the completion of the design and manufacturing of the ELSA-M servicer.

The plan is that the servicer will become capable of capturing and removing multiple satellites in a single mission. This will be when they reach the end of operational life in low Earth orbit.

Some of the phases of the full mission are pictured below.

Image: Astroscale – Managing Director of Astroscale UK Nick Shave with the Eutelsat OneWeb and ESA team.

See also: Astroscale signs up for Gas Stations in Space