IAF Excellence in Industry Award 2023 for SMEs

Astroscale is the first private company with a vision for the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations and is solely dedicated to on-orbit servicing across all orbits. The company is developing innovative and scalable solutions across the spectrum of on-orbit servicing, including life extension, in space situational awareness, end-of-life services, and active debris removal, to create sustainable space systems and mitigate the growing and hazardous buildup of debris in space.
On March 22, 2021, Astroscale successfully launched their ELSA-d mission. This was the world’s first commercial mission to prove the core technologies necessary for space debris removal in low-Earth orbit (LEO), an unprecedented demonstration for a commercially funded mission in LEO. The demonstration proved key technologies such as capture via magnetic arm and docking plate, tracking of an object from a great distance, rendezvous with an uncontrolled object, and handover from absolute navigation to relative navigation for a LEO servicing spacecraft.
In addition, a key aspect of the success of the ELSA-d mission is the various partnerships it has with ground station providers and space situation awareness (SSA) service providers. These partnerships are crucial for managing the most complex maneuvers and ensuring critical mission safety operations and transparency. The technologies validated through the ELSA-d mission mark the initial steps toward Astroscale's vision of achieving routine on-orbit servicing by 2030.