Space junk removal company ClearSpace signs deal to launch on Vega-C
The European company ClearSpace has signed a launch deal with Arianespace to fly the first test of its space junk removal robot on a Vega-C rocket set to launch some time in the second half of 2026.
The development of ClearSpace’s robot, which will use four grappling arms to surround and then capture its target, was paid for under a European Space Agency (ESA) $121 million contract which also required it to be launched on an Arianespace rocket. The problem right now is that it will fly as a secondary payload, and a primary payload has not yet been found.
Finding that primary payload is going to be difficult. First, Vega-C failed on its second launch last year and has not yet flown again. Second, it is expendable, and though cheaper than Arianespace’s other rocket, Ariane-6 (which has not yet launched), it is still more expensive than other commercial rockets now available. Third, the customer of that primary payload must also want to go into an orbit that will allow ClearSpace’s robot to reach its target, an abandoned Vega Payload Adapter from a previous launch.
As has been typical of Europe, this development is proceeding too slowly and is being hampered by requirements unrelated to profit and loss. By ’26 expect several other space junk removal companies — Astroscale and D-Orbit come to mind — to have already demonstrated their capabilities and already garnering market share, before ClearSpace even flies.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The European company ClearSpace has signed a launch deal with Arianespace to fly the first test of its space junk removal robot on a Vega-C rocket set to launch some time in the second half of 2026.
The development of ClearSpace’s robot, which will use four grappling arms to surround and then capture its target, was paid for under a European Space Agency (ESA) $121 million contract which also required it to be launched on an Arianespace rocket. The problem right now is that it will fly as a secondary payload, and a primary payload has not yet been found.
Finding that primary payload is going to be difficult. First, Vega-C failed on its second launch last year and has not yet flown again. Second, it is expendable, and though cheaper than Arianespace’s other rocket, Ariane-6 (which has not yet launched), it is still more expensive than other commercial rockets now available. Third, the customer of that primary payload must also want to go into an orbit that will allow ClearSpace’s robot to reach its target, an abandoned Vega Payload Adapter from a previous launch.
As has been typical of Europe, this development is proceeding too slowly and is being hampered by requirements unrelated to profit and loss. By ’26 expect several other space junk removal companies — Astroscale and D-Orbit come to mind — to have already demonstrated their capabilities and already garnering market share, before ClearSpace even flies.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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