ASTROSCALE WINS DSTL FUNDING FOR EXPLORATION OF FUTURE SPACE-BASED SPACE DOMAIN AWARENESS MISSIONS

Astroscale Ltd. (“Astroscale UK”), the UK subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc. (“Astroscale”), the market leader in satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability across all orbits, has won funding from Dstl (The MOD Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) to explore space-based space domain awareness (SB-SDA) mission concepts for launch in the 2030s.

Astroscale Ltd. formed the winning consortium teaming with Raytheon NORSS and SJE Space Ltd for the project. The aim of the study is to advance knowledge of space-based space domain awareness (SB-SDA) through a comprehensive review of the current technologies and techniques that are used in SB-SDA missions and an analysis of how these will progress over the coming decades.

The study will seek to explore a variety of areas including SB-SDA future developments to 2030 and beyond, SB-SDA Mission Analysis and an assessment of space-based vs. ground-based capabilities for SDA. The work will help improve understanding of how existing SB-SDA technologies are anticipated to progress over time to address current and anticipated future SDA capability gaps.

The consortium has been awarded £100,000 for the study and has substantial experience in SDA, having worked with prominent SSA companies such as Fujitsu and Raytheon NORSS on several government-funded Space Surveillance Tracking (SST) projects.