The British government is funding a group of in-orbit servicing ventures to establish guidelines for their rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO). Astroscale, ClearSpace, and D-Orbit secured £690,000 ($869,000) from the U.K. Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
“The total value is relatively small but I think it has the potential to really have a big, big impact on how the market develops for these services in the future,” said Andrew Faiola, Astroscale’s vice president and commercial director. The initial phase, lasting until March, will produce a report on space junk removal and satellite refueling, including regulatory recommendations.
The consortium will work with the British government and regulators, including the Civil Aviation Authority, to identify licensing bottlenecks. A year-long second phase will focus on a broader regulatory framework. While the U.K. allowed Astroscale's 2021 debris removal test (ELSA-D), Faiola noted the current ad-hoc licensing process is slow.
“If we want to have a vibrant commercial end-of-life services business, for example, it can’t take us two years to license every mission,” he said. “It has to be able to happen in a more standardized way.” With thousands of satellite launches projected over five years, a standardized approach is crucial. ELSA-D involved two U.K.-licensed spacecraft, but future missions may involve multiple jurisdictions.
The regulatory sandbox will address licensing international RPO activities, determining liability in case of mission failure. Faiola believes this could serve as a model for other countries. A robust regulatory framework will provide investors and customers with market certainty.
“Getting these types of regulatory licensing frameworks in place is key to unlocking the market,” he said. Commercial companies, according to Faiola, understand market needs for competitiveness and sustainability. “Even a country like the U.K. that does have some experience in this still is rather inexperienced,” he said, “and don’t really know what’s under the hood, so to speak, in terms of everything required to manage a mission like this.”
Astroscale is pursuing U.K. approval for an ELSA-M mission to de-orbit a OneWeb satellite in 2026. “These things do take some time,” Faiola said. “In future, hopefully they’ll take much less time, but we can’t wait around for the outcomes of this program to impact our ability to move forward on our launch cadence.” Astroscale plans to offer commercial debris removal soon after the demonstration mission, though customers haven't been announced.
Northern Sky Research projects the in-orbit servicing market to reach £14 billion globally by 2031. Astroscale competes with ClearSpace for a separate U.K. mission to remove two spacecraft in 2026. ClearSpace also plans to remove an ESA satellite. D-Orbit aims to enter the geostationary satellite servicing market in 2027-2028, following Northrop Grumman’s SpaceLogistics, which has demonstrated in-orbit servicing viability.