Star scale A space junk monitoring satellite moved within striking distance of the upper stage of an abandoned rocket that has been floating around Earth for nearly 20 years, and took close-up images – a precursor to deorbiting the object on a future mission.
The company released an image captured by its satellite from just 50 meters (164 feet) away on June 14, the latest milestone in an ambitious program aimed at eventually removing debris from orbit. During this first phase of the campaign, the Debris Removal Satellite by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) performs safe approach maneuvers, called rendezvous and proximity operations, with the target object, as well as acquiring images and other data about it.
The 150-kilogram ADRAS-J was selected by Japan’s National Space Agency for this first phase of its Commercial Debris Removal (CRD2) demonstration project in 2020. Astroscale has also been selected for the second phase of the project, a contract that has been announced. In April, the object will be jostled and deorbited.
ADRAS-J was launched on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket in February. Since then, it has been slowly moving closer and closer to the discarded object – an 11-meter-long upper stage of a Japanese H-IIA rocket that ended up in low Earth orbit after its launch in 2009. It is worth noting that the rocket stage does not broadcast its position, so it was Astroscale must use ground-based techniques to find its approximate location, then collect additional data in orbit to determine the best approach path.
In addition to images, ADRAS-J also collects data about the object, such as its rotation rate and the general condition of the structure. In the next phase of the mission, Astroscale aims to perform more controlled approach maneuvers, including flying around the object, to capture additional images of the upper stage. At the end of the mission, ADRAS-J will move to a safe orbit to avoid collision with a piece of space junk.
Astroscale began trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s growth market earlier this month. The company, which has offices in the US, UK, France and Israel, is developing a range of spacecraft to manage satellites and other vehicles in orbit, both active and inactive. This includes life extension services for large satellites in geostationary orbit or “end of life” services for commercial satellites in low Earth orbit that have reached the end of their mission.
Astroscale shared additional images captured by ADRAS-J on YouTube. Check them out below.