Astroscale’s ELSA-d mission Has Contracted with Glavkosmos/GK Launch Services

Astroscale is happy to announce that Astroscale Japan Inc. has contracted Glavkosmos/GK Launch Services to launch its pioneering ELSA-d (End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration) mission on a Soyuz-2 cluster mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome in early 2020.

ELSA-d is Astroscale’s first project to demonstrate the core rendezvous, capture, and docking technology for future semi-cooperative debris removal missions. ELSA-d consists of two spacecraft, a Chaser (160 kg) and a Target (20 kg), launched stacked together. The Chaser is equipped with proximity rendezvous technologies and a magnetic capture mechanism which enables it to dock with the Target’s Docking Plate.

ELSA-d’s ConOps video is available from here.

Visit GK Launch Services website here.

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