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TAMPA, Fla. — Astroscale, the space junk removal venture, announced a British government contract June 16 worth about $7 million to deploy a pair of cubesats in 2027 to monitor space weather while tracking other objects in low Earth orbit (LEO).
The Japanese company’s British subsidiary has ordered the satellites from U.K.-based Open Cosmos as part of the 5.15 million British pound contract.
The near-identical spacecraft would fly in close formation for the year-long Orpheus mission, equipped with a hyperspectral imaging sensor to detect and identify targets of interest, and four other payloads to study geophysical activity in the upper atmosphere.
The US Naval Research Laboratory, University of Bath and small satellite specialist Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. are developing the payloads focused on examining the ionosphere, where charged particles disturbed by solar activity can disrupt satellite signals, navigation systems and radio communications.
“Changes in space weather can have a critical impact on satellites which provide navigation aids, telecommunications and data transmission,” said Paul Hollinshead, CEO of the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
“Sustained investment in space research in collaboration with our international partners strengthens the security of U.K. interests in space.”
Dstl, an executive agency of the U.K. Ministry of Defence, awarded the Orpheus contract via the Serapis framework managed by British aerospace contractor BAE Systems.
Astroscale said it would operate the Orpheus satellites, leveraging its rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) expertise following an in-orbit servicing mission in 2021 that demonstrated its satellite capture technology.
“Whilst the nominal Orpheus mission is not an RPO mission, it requires two spacecraft to be flown in close formation using a lead-trail configuration,” an Astroscale spokesperson said via email.
“Astroscale’s flight experience of RPO missions makes them very well equipped to achieve formation flying in LEO, particularly when the operator needs to consider disturbances that can significantly impact the atmospheric drag.”
The three-year Dstl contract fully funds the project, including design, launch and operations.
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