Airbus has purchased 100 docking plates from Astroscale to facilitate post-mission removal in a bid to prevent accumulation of clutter in space.
The purchase marks the first large-scale order for Astroscale, which has flown two test missions demoing close-proximity operations and rendezvous and docking tech in LEO. The Gen 2 docking plates purchased by Airbus, which are able to be captured by both robotic arms and magnetic tech, were first introduced by Astroscale in 2023 and have completed several test missions.
“This milestone order from Airbus underscores the industry’s increasing commitment to sustainable space operations,” Nick Shave, the managing director at Astroscale UK, said in a statement. “The Astroscale second-generation docking plate is more than a product; it’s a critical step toward future-proofing satellites for in-orbit servicing and end-of-life debris mitigation.”
Full plate: Astroscale expects the docking plates should survive 15+ years in space. The plates are fitted with special markers to help the junk collector spacecraft determine the object’s position and tumbling rate to enable a safe approach.
Astroscale developed the docking plates as part of their ELSA-d and ADRAS-J demonstration missions.
- ELSA-d, launched in 2021, spent nearly three years in orbit testing magnetic capture technologies using a simulated piece of space junk.
- The ADRAS-J mission, commissioned by JAXA and launched in February, inspected a rocket stage left in LEO.
What’s next: Airbus, which builds sats for Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation, will use the docking plates on an unspecified LEO constellation, according to an Astroscale spokesperson. But the technology could be used on “almost any smallsat-class” spacecraft,” the spokesperson added.
Astroscale is expected to attempt to remove a OneWeb satellite in 2027 as part of its ELSA-M (for End-of-Life by Astroscale-Multiple) demo. That mission should pave the way for a commercial service that would use one servicer spacecraft to remove multiple satellites from orbit, one after another.
