TAMPA, Fla. — The UK Space Agency has awarded funds to consortiums led by Astroscale and ClearSpace to continue developing a servicer capable of removing two spacecraft from low Earth orbit (LEO) in 2026.
The British subsidiaries of Japan-based Astroscale and Switzerland’s ClearSpace announced about 2.35 million British pounds ($3 million) each in funding before tax Sept. 11 to continue de-risking their robotic arm capture system and debris de-tumbling capabilities.
The grants enable the ventures to continue working on their technologies until March, when the UK Space Agency is expected to decide which will conduct the demonstration mission.
Both consortiums passed preliminary design reviews for their mission earlier this year.
Astroscale’s spacecraft is a technological evolution of its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-Multi-client (ELSA-M) servicer, which is about the size of a compact car and recently secured all the government funds needed for its debut mission.
ELSA-M is slated to launch during Astroscale’s fiscal year ending in April 2026. Instead of a robotic arm, this servicer would use a magnetic capture mechanism to attach to and then de-orbit a OneWeb LEO satellite previously fitted with a compatible docking plate.
Astroscale said the servicer it is developing to de-orbit a pair of undisclosed U.K.-licensed satellites for the country’s space agency would be launched sometime after ELSA-M.
The Japanese venture’s first in-orbit demonstration mission successfully used a magnetic capture mechanism in 2021 to capture and release a test satellite.
However, that servicer later lost half its thrusters and was unable to recapture the spacecraft to complete the mission, which involved a controlled descent to jointly burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Astroscale also recently announced a contract from Japan’s space agency to de-orbit a defunct upper stage of an H-2A rocket with a servicer equipped with a robotic arm.
ClearSpace has also not disclosed which pair of U.K.-licensed satellites it plans to remove from LEO with a robotic arm capture mechanism on a similarly sized spacecraft.
A ClearSpace spokesperson said the venture has downselected two clients and identified multiple backups, all about the size of a washing machine and weighing around 100 kilograms each.
In April, ClearSpace said it no longer planned to de-orbit a Vega rocket payload adapter in 2026 as part of a mission for the European Space Agency. This mission will instead seek to remove ESA’s Project for On-Board Autonomy-1 (Proba-1) satellite from low Earth orbit, among other changes announced by the space agency.
Last year, the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron notified ESA of debris near the Vega rocket part, indicating a probable collision with other debris.
