TAMPA, Fla. — Small satellite builder Astro Digital plans so as to add an Astroscale docking plate to approaching spacecraft to make it easier for them to make use of in-orbit services being developed by Astroscale and others.
The businesses said July 31 the primary docking plate can be attached to an undisclosed satellite later this yr for a launch within the fourth quarter of 2024.
It’s the primary time 10-year-old Astroscale has announced a industrial partnership for the hardware, as work continues to display how upcoming servicers could perform de-orbit and life-extension missions after latching onto the docking plate.
Tokyo-based Astroscale declined to debate further details about its partnership with Astro Digital, including what number of satellites are of their agreement.
Just like other smallsat specialists, Santa Clara, California-based Astro Digital has been constructing increasingly larger spacecraft after initially specializing in the smallest cubesats. The corporate currently offers spacecraft starting from 10 to 200 kilograms.
Compatible with magnetic and mechanical capture methods, Astroscale’s circular docking plate is just a little larger than a compact disc at 15 centimeters in diameter, and the hardware weighs lower than 500 grams in total.
Astroscale demonstrated how a servicer could latch onto an earlier version of the docking plate in 2021 during magnetic capture and release tests as a part of ELSA-d, or End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration, in low Earth orbit (LEO).
First demo cut short
ELSA-d’s 175-kilogram servicer later lost using half its thrusters in early 2022, forcing Astroscale to scrap plans to recapture and de-orbit the 17-kilogram client craft.
Astroscale said in June it can try to lower the servicer’s orbit through a series of controlled burns over several months, aiming to burn it up within the atmosphere before the tip of the yr.
With none ability to maneuver, Astroscale expects the client satellite to naturally de-orbit over the following several years.
In 2025, Astroscale plans to send a bigger servicer to LEO with a mass of just a few hundred kilograms to capture and de-orbit a defunct 150-kilogram OneWeb satellite, which has a compatible magnetic docking plate provided by U.S.-based Altius.
The End of Life Services by Astroscale-multiple mission (ELSA-m), delayed from 2024, can be designed to capture multiple satellites of as much as 800 kilograms in a single mission, although follow-on clients haven’t been announced.
ELSA-m is being built by Astroscale’s U.K. subsidiary, supported by funds from the European Space Agency, UK Space Agency, and U.K.-based OneWeb.
Under a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) contract, Astroscale plans to make use of a spacecraft launching on a Rocket Lab Electron later this yr to examine a discarded upper stage of a Japanese H2-A rocket.
The Energetic Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan, or ADRAS-J, will try to demo proximity operations and image the debris, ahead of a possible follow-on mission to remove it with a servicer able to grabbing objects with out a docking plate.
Astroscale has raised greater than $376 million up to now for a business hoping to make in-orbit servicing routine by the tip of the last decade.
Its investors include Japanese satellite maker Mitsubishi Electric, which is looking into adding compatible docking plates to national security spacecraft.
Other in-orbit servicing ventures include Northrop Grumman-owned SpaceLogistics of the US, which is currently extending the lifetime of two geostationary Intelsat satellites, and Swiss startup ClearSpace which plans to launch its first de-orbit demo mission in 2026.