Plan wins funding to remove derelict satellites
A group of UK-based businesses are working on a proposal to remove two old satellites from low Earth orbit
- Published
Two derelict satellites are to be removed from Earth's orbit under a plan by a UK-based consortium.
The satellites are more than a decade old and it would take up to 100 years before atmospheric drag would cause them to naturally re-enter the atmosphere and burn up.
The UK Space Agency has awarded £2.2m funding to help the consortium develop its plan.
The project, led by London-based start-up ClearSpace, and involving Edinburgh organisation AstroAgency, would see a spacecraft grab and then remove the satellites from Earth's orbit - and the path of other satellites.
The initiative is part of a wider effort to clean-up space junk cluttering more than 430 miles up in low Earth orbit.
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