Astroscale UK Receives $15 Million Contract for Final Phase of ELSA-M In-Orbit Demonstration

Astroscale UK Receives $15 Million Contract for Final Phase of ELSA-M In-Orbit Demonstration

Astroscale, the UK subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings, the market leader in satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability, has secured EUR 13.95 million (approximately USD 15 million or GBP 11.78 million) from the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency to support the final phase of the End-of-Life by Astroscale-Multiple (ELSA-M) in-orbit demonstration.

The funding was released following the securing of the contract with Eutelsat OneWeb in the context of the Sunrise Partnership Project, a public-private partnership between ESA and the Eutelsat Group. The Sunrise Partnership Project, part of ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) program, aims to develop solutions for future generation telecommunication satellite missions. Both the ARTES programme and Sunrise are supported by the UK Space Agency.

Set to launch during the fiscal year ending in April 2026, ELSA-M will be the world’s first commercial end-of-life service for prepared satellites, meaning satellites designed with technologies such as an interface that will enable docking and removal. This groundbreaking mission, designed and built by Astroscale UK at the Harwell Campus in Oxford, improves on the capabilities developed and successfully demonstrated by ELSA-d. The ELSA-d mission, launched in 2021, validated Astroscale’s end-of-life technologies, completing unprecedented demonstrations in-orbit, including repeated magnetic capture and controlled close-approach rendezvous operations between the two spacecraft in orbit.

ELSA-M Phase 4 includes flight model assembly, integration and testing, launch and commissioning, through in-orbit demonstration activities, and full in-house operations of successfully docking, de-orbiting, and releasing of the Eutelsat OneWeb client spacecraft. With this achievement, Astroscale UK continues to demonstrate its commitment to sustainable space operations and pave the way for the future of space sustainability and satellite servicing.

Click here to learn more about Astroscale's ELSA-M servicer spacecraft.

Publisher: SatNow
Tags:-  SatelliteLaunchGround

GNSS Constellations - A list of all GNSS satellites by constellations

beidou

Satellite NameOrbit Date
BeiDou-3 G4Geostationary Orbit (GEO)17 May, 2023
BeiDou-3 G2Geostationary Orbit (GEO)09 Mar, 2020
Compass-IGSO7Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)09 Feb, 2020
BeiDou-3 M19Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)16 Dec, 2019
BeiDou-3 M20Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)16 Dec, 2019
BeiDou-3 M21Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)23 Nov, 2019
BeiDou-3 M22Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)23 Nov, 2019
BeiDou-3 I3Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)04 Nov, 2019
BeiDou-3 M23Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)22 Sep, 2019
BeiDou-3 M24Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)22 Sep, 2019

galileo

Satellite NameOrbit Date
GSAT0223MEO - Near-Circular05 Dec, 2021
GSAT0224MEO - Near-Circular05 Dec, 2021
GSAT0219MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0220MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0221MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0222MEO - Near-Circular25 Jul, 2018
GSAT0215MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017
GSAT0216MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017
GSAT0217MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017
GSAT0218MEO - Near-Circular12 Dec, 2017

glonass

Satellite NameOrbit Date
Kosmos 2569--07 Aug, 2023
Kosmos 2564--28 Nov, 2022
Kosmos 2559--10 Oct, 2022
Kosmos 2557--07 Jul, 2022
Kosmos 2547--25 Oct, 2020
Kosmos 2545--16 Mar, 2020
Kosmos 2544--11 Dec, 2019
Kosmos 2534--27 May, 2019
Kosmos 2529--03 Nov, 2018
Kosmos 2527--16 Jun, 2018

gps

Satellite NameOrbit Date
Navstar 82Medium Earth Orbit19 Jan, 2023
Navstar 81Medium Earth Orbit17 Jun, 2021
Navstar 78Medium Earth Orbit22 Aug, 2019
Navstar 77Medium Earth Orbit23 Dec, 2018
Navstar 76Medium Earth Orbit05 Feb, 2016
Navstar 75Medium Earth Orbit31 Oct, 2015
Navstar 74Medium Earth Orbit15 Jul, 2015
Navstar 73Medium Earth Orbit25 Mar, 2015
Navstar 72Medium Earth Orbit29 Oct, 2014
Navstar 71Medium Earth Orbit02 Aug, 2014

irnss

Satellite NameOrbit Date
NVS-01Geostationary Orbit (GEO)29 May, 2023
IRNSS-1IInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)12 Apr, 2018
IRNSS-1HSub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (Sub-GTO)31 Aug, 2017
IRNSS-1GGeostationary Orbit (GEO)28 Apr, 2016
IRNSS-1FGeostationary Orbit (GEO)10 Mar, 2016
IRNSS-1EGeosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)20 Jan, 2016
IRNSS-1DInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)28 Mar, 2015
IRNSS-1CGeostationary Orbit (GEO)16 Oct, 2014
IRNSS-1BInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)04 Apr, 2014
IRNSS-1AInclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO)01 Jul, 2013