One great sweep to tidy away old satellites

BRITAIN has declared war on space junk with a litter-picking spacecraft designed to retrieve defunct satellites.

Oxfordshire-based Astroscale is embarking on the world’s first mission to remove satellites from orbit when they reach the end of their life, in a project backed by the UK Space Agency.

The spacecraft will be capable of capturing and removing multiple satellites in a single sweep, once they reach the end of their operational life in low Earth orbit.

The company is working alongside Oneweb, the satellite network partly owned by the Government, which is aiming to put nearly 650 satellites into space to provide global internet links.

Oneweb has 428 satellites orbiting about 750 miles above the Earth, but they can only operate for between five and six years, so will need to be removed before the end of the decade to avoid collisions.

George Freeman, the science minister, said: “With thousands of satellites already in orbit and thousands more being launched every year, addressing the issue of space debris and finding ways to remove defunct spacecraft and other types of space junk is of everincreasing importance.”

The spacecraft, called ELSA-M, will launch for testing in 2024 and could be operational the following year. It works by using a magnetic capture mechanism that grabs the satellites so they can be manoeuvred to a different location, or brought back to Earth.

There are almost 4,500 satellites in orbit, with thousands more scheduled for deployment.

Experts warn that if nothing is done to remove defunct craft, a collision is inevitable. The ensuing storm of debris would cause a chain reaction known as Kessler Syndrome, which could destroy everything in orbit, and cause serious damage to the International Space Station – an outcome dramatised in the Hollywood film Gravity.

Earlier this year, Russia held an anti-satellite missile test which left 1,500 pieces of debris in orbit, and forced astronauts from the International Space Station to flee into their Soyuz re-entry craft in case they needed to evacuate.