Robotic Spacecraft Will Capture Two Defunct British Satellites
Oct 21, 2026
The UK Space Agency has chosen ClearSpace as prime contractor for the country’s first national active debris removal mission, a contract worth about £61 million. The company will design, build, and operate a robotic spacecraft that captures two defunct British satellites and removes them from low Earth orbit. The agency made its pick at the end of a long competitive evaluation, in which Astroscale and Starfish Space also put forward bids. Launch is planned for later this decade, and the two target satellites have not been named yet. For an industry that has talked about in-orbit servicing for years, the award is a rare sign that governments are ready to pay for it.
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In contrast, past government support for innovation was primarily in the form of grants and programs, but this time the government itself is the customer. It is responsible for setting the mission requirement and monitoring performance, whereas ClearSpace is responsible for design, development, and delivery. But it is not just about debris removal, said Alice Bunn, a co-director at the agency, because the mission is about developing capabilities that will be necessary for future servicing, assembly, and manufacturing in space. Debris is an immense and growing problem in space, and the UK is keen to play a leading role in the global cleanup, said Space Minister Liz Lloyd.
The spacecraft first matches the orbit of a target, then uses clamping mechanisms to grip its outer structure, since old satellites rarely carry docking adapters or standard grappling points. After the first capture, the spacecraft lowers the perigee of the combined stack so the object drops toward the atmosphere and burns up. It then releases that satellite, raises its own altitude, and goes after the second one. Rob Atchison, managing director of ClearSpace UK, said the next step is to design, build, and test a spacecraft that can get close, safely, to an object never meant to be caught and take control of it.
The spacecraft design leans heavily on capture technology developed for a European Space Agency mission to remove the Proba-1 satellite, which is also planned for later this decade. Earlier feasibility work under the CLEAR study helped the company beat rival concepts, including the COSMIC architecture from Astroscale. The firm also runs other projects, such as an inspection demonstration and a life-extension mission for satellites in geostationary orbit. Luc Piguet, the CEO and co-founder, said the selection is an important milestone, and that taking responsibility for delivering complex operations in orbit is exactly where the company wants to be.
The award fits neatly into the national space strategy, which names in-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing as one of four priority areas. This is the first nationally commissioned demonstration mission to follow that plan. Success would give the UK real flight experience in capturing objects that were never designed to be grabbed. It could also open the door to more government debris contracts and to commercial work such as refueling and life extension. Plenty of development and approval work remains before launch, but the mission shows that cleaning up orbit is turning into a business as well as a necessity.
