Astroscale announces launch window for ELSA-d demo

Astroscale Holdings will launch its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) on a Soyuz rocket before engaging in a series of tests to validate its technology.

If the tests are successful, satellite operators will be able to safely dispose of their hardware once missions are complete and, in the words of Seita Iizuka, ELSA-d project manager, establish Astroscale as a global leader in the on-orbit servicing market.

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Tokyo-headquartered Astroscale said the ELSA-d mission will demonstrate several dynamically complex capture activities necessary to remove defunct objects from orbit using a servicer (~175kg) and a client (~17kg), launched together. The servicer, equipped with proximity rendezvous technologies and a magnetic capture mechanism, will repeatedly release and dock with the client, which has been prepared with a ferromagnetic docking plate. Astroscale intends to prove the capabilities required for debris removal, including client search, inspection and rendezvous, and both non-tumbling and tumbling docking.