Clean Orbit Newsletter: Dec. 1, 2021
Astroscale raises $300 million in latest funding round, Russian ASAT debris cancels ISS spacewalk, UK Government announces international debris remediation projects
Astroscale Closes Its Largest Funding Round to Date, Bringing Total Capital Raised to U.S. $300 Million
“Astroscale Holdings Inc. (“Astroscale”), the market leader in satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability across all orbits, today announced it closed its Series F round with additional funding of U.S. $109 million from a group of new investors led by THE FUND Limited Partnership in Japan... This is the largest funding round in the company’s history and brings the total amount raised to U.S. $300 million, affirming investors’ confidence in the rapidly expanding on-orbit servicing market.”
“The Series F funding round represents another significant milestone for Astroscale, and will rapidly advance the range of missions and services that the company is developing globally. The End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission successfully completed its first technical demonstration in orbit in August, and Astroscale is preparing for the “capture without tumbling” phase, which is expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year.”
“In Japan, the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) spacecraft, which was selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for Phase I of its Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration Project, will enter the assembly phase in early 2022. In the United Kingdom, the team was recently awarded a bid to study the removal of two defunct satellites from the UK Space Agency and is maturing the End-of-Life technology and capability towards a commercial service offering by 2024. The Astroscale U.S. and Israel teams are meeting milestones for the Life Extension In-Orbit (LEXI™) spacecraft and have successfully executed key tests.”
Nasa postpones spacewalk citing ‘debris notification’ for ISS
“On Tuesday, about five hours before the astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron were due to venture outside the space station, Nasa said on Twitter that the spacewalk to fix a failed antenna had been cancelled.”
“Nasa received a debris notification for the space station. Due to the lack of opportunity to properly assess the risk it could pose to the astronauts, teams have decided to delay the 30 November spacewalk until more information is available,” it tweeted.”
“On Monday, ahead of the planned spacewalk, Dana Weigel, Nasa’s deputy manager for the ISS, said the debris had since “dispersed out quite a bit more”. But she added that the agency had calculated a 7% higher risk of spacewalkers’ suits being punctured, compared with before Russia’s missile test.
Nasa TV had planned to provide live coverage of the six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, which was scheduled to begin at 7.10am ET (12.10pm GMT). The objective had been to remove a faulty S-band radio communications antenna assembly, which is more than two decades old, and replace it with a new antenna already stowed outside the space station.”
UK working with global partners to clear up dangerous space debris
Gov.UK |
At the 72nd International Astronautical Congress in Dubai, the UK Space Agency unveiled a series of projects aimed at “developing our space tracking capabilities and promoting international efforts in space sustainability.”
“A collaboration between the UK Space Agency and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) to support the next stage of international efforts to promote space sustainability. UK Space Agency funding will support a collaborative effort to advance global awareness on space sustainability and how best to implement the UN Guidelines for the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities (LTS Guidelines)”
“Two space firms, Astroscale and ClearSpace, have been awarded UK Space Agency funding to research a UK led mission to remove junk from space, supporting the government’s ambitions to be a leading nation in tackling space debris.”
“The UK Space Agency will also partner with US-based company Numerica Corporation, which will provide high-quality space surveillance and tracking (SST) data from a worldwide network of optical telescopes and state-of-the-art software solutions to help keep UK satellites safely operating.”
Space Café Radio: A Special on the recent Russian Anti-Satellite Test
“In this special episode of Space Cafè Radio, we explore the political and strategic implications of the 15th of November 2021 Russian ASAT attack.
The missile test created more than 1500 space debris and forced the ISS crew to undertake an emergency procedure for safety and to postpone a pre-planned maintenance spacewalk. This attack returns the Space sector to the center of a major reshuffle and rising tension between the major power players in the international geopolitical scene. In this heated atmosphere, the implications of an anti-satellite attack can have more far reaching and long-term consequences than temporary communication disruption. Why Russia did what it did? What is really at stakes here? And how the EU, the US and the Space International Community shall respond?
We discussed all this and much more with Prof. Kai-Uwe Schrogl, Honorary Professor of International Technology Policy at the University of Tübingen (Germany), Victoria Samson, Washington Office Director for Secure World Foundation, and Valentin Eder, engineer and CEO at Space Analyses, three top experts in the field of Space policy, US Space strategy and debris tracking.”
OneWeb mulls debris-removal service for failed satellite
“The failed satellite, according to an industry source, was one of 34 launched Feb. 6, 2020, from Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. OneWeb’s satellites are being built in Florida by OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture with Airbus Defence and Space.
OneWeb has a partnership formed earlier this year with debris-removal startup Astroscale under ESA’s Sunrise program, which awarded OneWeb and Astroscale funding in May for a satellite to demonstrate technologies including space junk removal.”
“The U.K.-headquartered startup has an insurance policy worth more than $1 billion that covers its satellite launches, which typically deploy 36 satellites at a time. However, the policy only spans the launch phase of the constellation’s deployment, and does not cover in-orbit failures.
SpaceX, which has claimed to have an in-orbit failure rate of less than 1% (although competitor Viasat disputes that), has also decided it has enough redundancy in its Starlink broadband megaconstellation that it does not need to insure in-orbit operations against satellite failures.”
“In October, the UK Space Agency awarded Astroscale and Swiss startup ClearSpace contracts totaling $1 million to study a mission to remove two spacecraft from LEO by 2025.”
Green frontiers: The sustainability mission in space
“Rowbury and Blackerby helped frame the conversation by revealing some facts: High above our heads, moving between six to eight times the speed of a bullet, are many, many objects. Some are incredibly precious to us; others are incredibly dangerous. Today there are roughly 3,000 active satellites, ranging in size from a toaster to a small car. They enable all of modern society’s critical functions, such as food production, travel and medicine.
As important as they are, these fragile linchpins of our lives are in constant danger. They travel within a rapidly growing sea of orbital debris.”
“Now there’s a shift to see our orbital highways as natural resources, places which need to be kept clean and safe. Unfortunately cleaning them up won’t be easy.” For once during the conversation, Blackerby’s energy dimmed as he considered the problem.
It is in these efforts that Astroscale shines. “For us, it’s about ‘prepare, remove and repair,’” Blackerby said. “’Prepare’ is about building satellites with the capacity to be easily removed. ‘Remove’ is about taking the debris out — like the many 2- or 3-ton rocket bodies just floating around in upper orbit. And then finally there is ‘repair’ — the refueling, maintaining and altitude control of existing and functioning satellites.” Astroscale treats each of these three missions as a separate business, with engineers, policy analysts and software all built to overcome challenges and service different clients.”
Space debris: More storm clouds ahead in orbit, experts say
"Unfortunately, I don't think this event is really the thing that is going to push people into action," said Moriba Jah, a space debris expert at the University of Texas at Austin. "It certainly raises the bar. It's still unbelievable that this happened. There's no evidence that there will be any repercussions … no consequences that would basically ban people from doing this in the future. This is a very unfortunate event."
"If I'm an investor, perhaps I would feel a bit nervous knowing that my investment is at risk by somebody blowing something up, and there are no consequences," Jah said.
"Space is a global resource," Commissioner Nathan Simington of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said in a statement. "But we do know at least one thing: orbital debris fields pose an existential threat," making the work of using space complicated and difficult.”
“We, as a society, did not create the orbital debris problem overnight, and we won't fix it overnight, either, said T.S. Kelso, a leading space debris expert with CelesTrak.”
“We should only launch what we need to launch and work to ensure that we remove any traces of that as soon as its mission is over," Kelso said. "This cultural change is needed now more than ever as we see launch rates increasing rapidly. It is far easier, and cheaper, to prevent polluting Earth orbit than it will be to remediate later.”
Routine space operations create countless pieces of space junk that pose mission-critical risks to humanity’s future in space. At this crucial time for space exploration, utilization, and development, Clean Orbit is dedicated to mitigating the risks that could jeopardize safe access to space.
Clean Orbit advocates for proactive, sustainable solutions to the growing threat of space debris in low earth orbit. Follow our newsletter for the latest developments in Space Traffic Management (STM), Active Debris Removal (ADR), and orbital close calls.