posted 03-21-2021 07:13 PM               

ELSA-d, or End of Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration, comprises a 175-kilogram servicer spacecraft and a 17-kilogram client satellite both set to launch March 22 as part of a GK Launch Services' Soyuz-2 rideshare mission lifting off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

The ELSA-d spacecraft will be controlled from the U.K., where Astroscale has built what it touts as the first mission control center dedicated to in-orbit servicing.

The ELSA-d servicer will demonstrate a number of activities as it maneuvers around its smaller companion satellite, proving capabilities that could be used for other applications.

In orbit, the 175-kilogram servicer — equipped with proximity rendezvous technologies and a magnetic capture mechanism — will repeatedly dock with and release the 17-kilogram client satellite.

posted 03-22-2021 09:32 AM               

Astroscale Celebrates Successful Launch of ELSA-d

Astroscale Holdings Inc. ("Astroscale"), the market leader in satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability across all orbits, confirmed the successful launch of its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration (ELSA-d) mission. This marks the start of the world's first commercial mission to prove the core technologies necessary for space debris docking and removal. ELSA-d, which consists of two satellites stacked together — a servicer designed to safely remove debris from orbit and a client satellite that serves as a piece of replica debris — was launched by GK Launch Services into a 550 km orbit on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, March 22, at 6:07 am (UTC).

"I am pleased to confirm that Astroscale's Mission Operations team at the In-Orbit Servicing Centre in Harwell, UK, has successfully made contact with our ELSA-d spacecraft and established that all initial system checks are satisfactory," said Seita Iizuka, ELSA-d Project Manager. "I congratulate our team and look forward to moving into the first phase of our technical demonstrations."

"While leading the way in proving our debris removal capabilities, ELSA-d will also propel regulatory developments and advance the business case for end-of-life and active debris removal services," said Nobu Okada, Astroscale Founder and CEO. "This successful launch brings us closer to realizing our vision of securing the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations."

Following additional preparatory steps in orbit, ELSA-d will enter the next phase of this pioneering mission to demonstrate the technologies and capabilities necessary for debris capture and removal. In the first of three complex demonstrations, the servicer satellite will release, and then dock magnetically, with the client satellite. Following this demonstration of non-tumbling capture, ELSA-d will perform two additional demonstrations: one to capture the client while it is tumbling, and one to deliberately lose, re-locate, approach and re-capture the client from far-range. Each of these demonstrations will take Astroscale one step closer towards delivering commercial debris removal and other on-orbit services.

posted 08-26-2021 08:46 AM               

Astroscale's ELSA-d Successfully Demonstrates Repeated Magnetic Capture

Astroscale's End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) successfully tested its ability to capture its client spacecraft using the servicer's magnetic capture system, in a demonstration performed on Wednesday, August 25 (UTC).

A major challenge of debris removal, and on-orbit servicing in general, is docking with or capturing a client object; this test demonstration served as a successful validation of ELSA-d's ability to dock with a client, such as a defunct satellite.

When ELSA-d was launched and commissioned, a mechanical locking mechanism held its servicer and client spacecraft together. The first step of this demonstration was to unlock this mechanism. Once unlocked, the magnetic capture system alone held the client to the servicer, preparing ELSA-d to repeatedly capture and release the client in future demonstrations.

The client was then separated from the servicer for the first time and captured to validate the magnetic capture system. During the release and capture period, Astroscale's Mission Operations and Ground Segment teams checked out and calibrated the rendezvous sensors and verified relevant ground system infrastructure and operational procedures.

The successful completion of this phase paves the way for the remainder of Astroscale's pioneering demonstrations of space debris removal. The Engineering and Mission Control teams are now preparing for "capture without tumbling," where the client will be separated to a greater distance, and the method of rendezvous and docking will rely on a combination of on-board autonomous software and advanced ground processing of telemetry and commands. This demonstration is expected to be completed in the coming months and will be followed by the "capture with tumbling" phase, in which the client will simulate an uncontrolled, tumbling space object. The final capture demonstration will be "diagnosis and client search," in which the servicer will inspect the client, withdraw to simulate a far-range search, then approach and recapture the client.

"This has been a fantastic first step in validating all the key technologies for rendezvous and proximity operations and capture in space," said Nobu Okada, Founder & CEO of Astroscale. "We are proud to have proven our magnetic capture capabilities and excited to drive on-orbit servicing forward with ELSA-d."

posted 01-26-2022 02:57 PM               

Astroscale Statement on Our ELSA-d Demonstration

We have begun operations for our groundbreaking ELSA-d debris removal mission's next phase: an autonomous capture demonstration in orbit. On January 25th, the ELSA-d servicer spacecraft successfully released its client spacecraft and began autonomous relative navigation, maintaining a constant and safe distance from the client spacecraft over multiple orbits, as designed.

Following an excellent start to mission operations, our team detected anomalous spacecraft conditions. For the safety of the mission, we have decided not to proceed with the capture attempt until the anomalies are resolved. Both spacecraft are operational and safely separated. We are in communication with agencies, regulators, space surveillance networks, and our orbital neighbors. We are continuing with the mission and will provide an update as soon as possible.

posted 04-06-2022 05:33 PM               

Astroscale Statement on Our ELSA-d Demonstration

Our team has made excellent progress addressing the anomalies experienced starting in January during the ELSA-d Autonomous Capture demonstration, with most issues either resolved or mitigated. However, there remains one issue that we have not been able to resolve: four of the servicer's eight thrusters have experienced technical difficulties and are now non-functional. This has impacted our ability to perform a capture of the client as planned for in this demonstration.

With safety always paramount, our team has used a complex mix of burns with the remaining thrusters, aerodynamic drag, and the natural perturbations of Earth's gravity to bring the servicer safely back to a distance where we can continue with operations. These steps have been challenging and are unprecedented, but we continue to make progress toward our goal of gaining as much experience and learning as possible for future on-orbit servicing missions and services.

With this in mind, we are planning for a controlled close approach in the near future. We plan to maneuver the servicer to a distance of 160m from the client and validate the ability of the servicer's low power radio sensor to detect and track the client, effectively enabling a transition from absolute to relative navigation. Success in this demonstration would be an important advancement for rendezvous and proximity operations, especially under more challenging circumstances than planned. We then plan to maneuver the servicer away from the client to a safe distance while we analyze the potential for a safe and viable recapture plan.

ELSA-d's recent and upcoming operations are building on the significant progress we already made with our Test Capture, successfully completed on August 25, 2021, and with our autonomous relative station keeping, successfully demonstrated in January. Over the course of this groundbreaking mission, we are learning valuable lessons about satellite servicing operations in space. Our customers can be confident that we will apply these lessons to all our future missions and services as we pave the way to a more sustainable orbital environment.

We will provide an update on the outcome of our client search demonstration as soon as possible. Thank you for your support!

posted 05-04-2022 08:06 AM               

Astroscale's ELSA-d Mission Successfully Completes Complex Rendezvous Operation

Astroscale Holdings Inc. ("Astroscale"), the market leader in satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability across all orbits, today (May 4) announced that, despite several unexpected setbacks, its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission successfully completed further controlled close-approach rendezvous operations between its two spacecraft in orbit. The technologies proven in this demonstration include tracking of an object from a great distance, rendezvous with an uncontrolled object, and handover from absolute navigation to relative navigation for a low-Earth orbit (LEO) servicing spacecraft. These capabilities are essential for rendezvous and proximity operations and on-orbit servicing, and this demonstration is unprecedented for a commercially funded mission in LEO.

"The journey to reunite the servicer and client, along with the successful completion of switching from absolute to relative navigation, have allowed us to prove even more key technologies and operational capabilities required for commercial end-of-life debris removal services," said Seita Iizuka, ELSA-d Project Manager. "Proving these capabilities gives us, and our partners, greater confidence in our debris removal service developments, and I congratulate the team on this impressive achievement."

ELSA-d is the world's first commercial mission to prove the core technologies necessary for on-orbit satellite servicing in LEO. The mission, which consists of two satellites — a servicer designed to safely remove debris from orbit and a client that serves as a piece of replica debris — was launched as a stack into a 550 km orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in March 2021. The first demonstration, in which the servicer released the client and manually performed magnetic docking, was completed on August 25, 2021, successfully validating the capture system, on-board sensors and cameras.

Mission operations for an Autonomous Capture demonstration began on January 25. After successful release of the client from the servicer's magnetic capture system, the servicer successfully maintained a distance of 30 meters from the client through the use of autonomous relative station-keeping algorithms, with input from the servicer's lower power radio (LPR) sensor. After successfully demonstrating this important rendezvous capability for more than seven hours, anomalous spacecraft conditions were detected. For the safety of the mission, the ELSA-d team decided not to proceed with the capture attempt. The servicer and client were further separated to allow the team to investigate several issues from a safe distance and by doing so, the spacecraft drifted farther apart, to a maximum distance of approximately 1,700 kilometers.

The biggest challenge of the latest demonstration was replanning the rendezvous approach with the use of only four of the eight thrusters on the servicer. This restricted the ability of the servicer to perform detailed rendezvous maneuvers with the client as originally planned. While a system issue had an impact on three of the thrusters, the root cause for the loss of one thruster is not clear and is under joint investigation by Astroscale and Bradford/ECAPS, the thruster supplier for the ELSA-d mission.

Several carefully planned maneuvers were conducted over the past two months to prepare the servicer for a controlled close approach rendezvous with the client. On April 7, using the limited set of available thrusters, the servicer successfully maneuvered to a distance of 159 meters from the client, and the ability of the servicer to search for and detect the client was validated, enabling a transition from absolute navigation, which relies on GPS and ground-based observations, to relative navigation, using on-board sensors. This handover has been the most challenging operation of the ELSA-d mission so far and is widely recognized as one of the more difficult capabilities to prove for satellite servicing operations.

With the completion of this critical operation, the servicer has once more been maneuvered away from the client and will remain at a stable distance for several months. During this time the team will analyze the next phase of the mission, including the potential for a safe and viable magnetic recapture of the client.

Despite not yet being able to complete the autonomous capture demonstration, the ELSA-d mission has proven several key technologies required for capturing orbital debris, including:

• autonomous guidance, navigation and control algorithms,

• closed loop control with on-board navigation sensors,

• autonomous thruster rendezvous maneuvering and attitude control,

• navigation of a servicer spacecraft from 1,700 km to within 160 m of a client using absolute navigation techniques (GPS and ground-based observations),

• transition from absolute navigation to relative navigation using on-board LPR sensor,

• more than one year of servicer and client satellite in-orbit mission operations, and

• magnetic capture mechanism using a docking plate.

As a validation of these pioneering capabilities, ELSA-d has received numerous awards and accolades for breaking new ground for space sustainability and on-orbit servicing, including the Via Satellite 2021 Satellite Technology of the Year and the Minister of State for Space Policy Award, sponsored by the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. The mission was also key to Astroscale being named to TIME's List of the 100 Most Influential Companies and Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies.

"ELSA-d was never going to be easy, even under ideal circumstances, but our global team has overcome numerous challenges and had tremendous successes, which will accelerate the already rapid growth of the on-orbit servicing market," said Nobu Okada, Founder and CEO of Astroscale. "We are grateful for the recognition our team has received from around the globe, and we thank the international space community for its support."

Astroscale's end-of-life services present a proactive way for satellite operators to protect their assets, avoid collision with other satellites and safeguard the orbital environment. Astroscale will harness what it learns from ELSA-d's technologies and capabilities to deliver the cutting-edge ELSA-M spacecraft, capable of capturing multiple defunct LEO satellites in a single mission. Technology development and planning are well underway to deliver an on-orbit demonstration, with the UK Space Agency, the European Space Agency and OneWeb as key partners, to test ELSA-M's capabilities with more than one defunct satellite belonging to a constellation operator, such as OneWeb.