Spaceq

Space debris is an issue that's not going away. In fact, it will get worse before it might get better. For Astroscale, an Asian startup based in Singapore and Japan, that spells business opportunity while doing humanity a favour.Astroscale has raised $102M US to date for its business case which is to help in the removal of orbital debris through the provision of End of Life and Active Debris Removal services.The company isn’t going to clean all of the debris that plagues us today, but it is taking steps to build a company that could be positioned to make an impact on future debris and possibly existing debris.Astroscale was founded in 2013 by Nobu Okada, a tech entrepreneur with no experience in the space sector. He wanted to bring his start-up mentality to the space sector and address the problem of orbital space debris.The company is working to get its first mission, ELSA-d, consisting of two spacecraft, a Chaser (~150 kg) and a Target (~20 kg), launched by 2020. According to Astroscale "the chaser is equip