Astroscale’s ADRAS-J satellite was successfully launched on Sunday aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket.
The satellite’s mission is to rendezvous with and inspect a piece of space debris – a retired Japanese H-2A rocket upper stage that has been in orbit since 2009.
This marks the first attempt to target an existing large piece of space debris, get close to it, and characterize it with images and assessments.
The goal is to determine if the debris can eventually be removed from orbit to help address the growing issue of space junk accumulating in Earth’s orbit.
Over the next few months, ADRAS-J will maneuver to the target debris and try to get close enough to inspect and observe it. This could inform future space junk cleanup efforts.
The mission was selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for their program studying commercial removal of orbital debris.
Removing space junk by deorbiting it or moving it to a lower orbit where it will burn up is seen as an important way to address the accumulation of orbital debris from decades of space activities.
Source: engadget
