- General
- October 13, 2020
- 4 minutes read
Astroscale Lands $51 Million Round
Nobu Okada, CEO, Astroscale. Photo credit: Tech In Asia Astroscale, a Japanese orbital debris removal company, has announced that it’s secured $51…
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| Nobu Okada, CEO, Astroscale.
Photo credit: Tech In Asia
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Astroscale, a Japanese orbital debris removal company, has announced that it’s secured $51 million in Series E funding led by investment firm aSTART, a funding round that brings the total amount of financing raised by the company to $191 million. Astroscale will use the new funding to further its business of helping space and satellite companies to recover orbital debris from space.
A significant problem for space exploration is the presence of debris from satellites or parts of satellites launched into space from earth and discarded after use or tests. Astroscale, now Japan’s most funded private space venture, has stepped in to address that problem by looking to offer space debris removal missions. Astroscale was founded in 2013 and raised its first external funding round two years later. Most of the company’s investors hail from Japan where it’s based while also maintaining other offices in the US, UK, Israel, and Singapore.
“Space debris is a serious issue that has the potential to affect our daily lives, the global economy and environmental sustainability,” said Kazumasa Watanabe, CEO of aSTART which led the Series E round, in a press statement. “Astroscale is not only leading the market with its unrivaled technology, but is also making a global impact by contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he said.
Along with recovering and removing orbital debris, Astroscale has also expanded its mission to include extending the life spans of geostationary satellites, an area that comes in handy in ensuring a sustainable space environment.
Astroscale hasn’t yet actually performed a commercial space debris removal mission but plans to conduct a demonstration mission in the second half of this year, with a launch aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. Astroscale’s debris removal space vehicle consists of two spacecraft that’ll find and latch on to targeted debris in order to de-orbit them.
Along with aSTART, other participants in Astrocale’s Series E funding round include Hulic Co, I-NET Corp, Shimizu Corporation, and the SPARX Space Frontier Fund.
