RemoveDebris: Mission to clear a huge mess above Earth [View all]

[nitpicker]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44603780

RemoveDebris: Mission to clear a huge mess above Earth

By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent

25 June 2018

Go! This is the moment the UK-led RemoveDebris mission left the International Space Station (ISS). The small satellite has a big job ahead - to trial the technologies that could one day be used to clean up orbiting junk. It carries a net to trap an object, and a harpoon that it will fire at a target to prove such projectiles can be used effectively in weightless conditions.

At 100kg, RemoveDebris is actually the largest sat yet released from the ISS. The time for its ejection last week was chosen very carefully so that the spacecraft would immediately fly over its control station - in Guildford, southern England. Engineers picked up its signal on the first pass overhead.
(snip)

The RemoveDebris project has its scientific leadership at the Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey; and was assembled at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. But the mission has technical input from across Europe, and it is the European Commission that has put up half the €15m (£13m) cost.

RemoveDebris will go through a few weeks of commissioning tests before beginning its experiments.
(snip)