ESA purchases world-first debris removal mission from Swiss start-up
ESA has signed an €86 million contract with an industrial team led by Swiss start-up ClearSpace SA to purchase a unique service: the first removal of an item of space debris from orbit.
As a result, in 2025, ClearSpace will launch the first active debris removal mission, ClearSpace-1, which will rendezvous, capture and take down for reentry the upper part of a Vespa (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter) used with Europe’s Vega launcher.This object was left in a ‘gradual disposal’ orbit (altitude of approximately 801 km by 664 km), complying with space debris mitigation regulations, following the second flight of Vega back in 2013.
Contact
Swiss Committee on Space Research (CSR)
c/o Prof. Dr Stéphane Paltani
University of Geneva
Department of Astronomy
Chemin d'Ecogia 16
1290 Versoix
Switzerland