A Japanese venture firm aiming to develop technology to remove space junk says its satellite successfully took close-up photos of rocket debris orbiting the Earth. Astroscale Japan released the images on Tuesday. They show the second stage of an H2A rocket. Its nozzle can be seen in the images. Tokyo-based Astroscale said its satellite, launched in February, got within about 50 meters of the rocket section on July 15 and 16. The H2A rocket was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, in 2009. The second stage is currently orbiting the earth at an altitude of 600 kilometers,

TAMPA, Fla. — The British government is funding a group of in-orbit servicing ventures to help develop ground rules for their planned rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO).  The British subsidiaries of Japan-based Astroscale, Switzerland’s ClearSpace, and D-Orbit of Italy said Dec. 23 they jointly secured 690,000 British pounds ($869,000) from the U.K. Department for Science, Innovation and Technology for an initial “regulatory sandbox” phase.

The British subsidiary of Japan’s Astroscale is preparing for a critical design review early next year of a servicer that will attempt to remove a OneWeb broadband satellite from low Earth orbit in…

ADRAS-J is a precursor to future missions servicing satellites and clearing space junk.

Airbus und Astroscale erweitern Partnerschaft für In-Orbit-Wartunghttps://spacenews.com/airbus-and-astroscale-expand-in-orbit-servicing-partnership/

This success lays the foundation for future missions to dock with out-of-control satellites.

Astroscale spacecraft continues inspection of upper stageby ye_olde_astronaut

The 11-year-old company spoke to overseas institutional investors in March to gather feedback before making a decision on a listing.

The British subsidiary of Japan’s Astroscale is preparing for a critical design review early next year of a servicer that will attempt to remove a OneWeb broadband satellite from low Earth orbit in…

Couldn't reach out and touch it, but still happy as this attempt was out of mission scope Japanese orbital janitor Astroscale says it has completed the closest ever approach by a commercial operator to space junk when it came within 15 meters of a…

This success lays the foundation for future missions to dock with out-of-control satellites.

Astroscale U.S. Inc., a Denver-based on-orbit services and logistics company, will perform two refueling operations of a U.S. Department of Defense satellite.

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Artist's illustration of Astroscale's space debris removal system in action. (Image credit: Astroscale) The Japanese space-sustainability company Astroscale has unveiled a patent for what it describes as a new method for space debris removal. Astroscale has developed a distributed, reusable system that aims to be more cost-effective and agile than traditional approaches to active debris removal (ADR). The system is described in a U.S. patent for its "Method and System for Multi-Object Space Debris Removal." The new method involves a single servicing spacecraft docking with multiple large space debris objects, such as defunct…

Through missions currently on the books for the Japan Space Agency JAXA, the U.S. Space Force, European Space Agency, UK Space Agency and Eutelsat OneWeb, the Tokyo-based on-orbit servicing company Astroscale aims to demonstrate inspection and proximity operations, rendezvous and docking, debris removal and refueling. When Astroscale was founded in 2013, the business was focused on cleaning up debris in low Earth orbit (LEO).