The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed an €86 million contract with Swiss startup ClearSpace to pioneer the active removal of orbital debris, guiding it into Earth's atmosphere for safe burnout.
Picture navigating the oceans littered with every shipwreck from history—that's Earth's orbit today. ESA tracks more than 34,000 pieces of man-made debris larger than 10 centimeters hurtling at thousands of km/h. These pose serious risks to operational satellites and the International Space Station (ISS), which maneuvered to avoid collisions three times last year alone.
The challenge intensifies as mega-constellations—comprising hundreds or thousands of satellites—deploy in low Earth orbit.
ESA is tackling this head-on. After soliciting proposals from over a dozen companies, it selected ClearSpace—founded by experts from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne—for the €86 million contract.
In 2025, ClearSpace-1 will launch to capture a 112-kilogram payload adapter left in low Earth orbit by Europe's Vega rocket in 2013. Robotic arms will grasp it, then tow it into the atmosphere to burn up completely.
“Now is the right time for such a mission. Space debris is more urgent than ever—with nearly 2,000 active satellites and over 3,000 inactive ones,” says Luc Piguet, ClearSpace founder and CEO.
While €86 million for one object seems steep, ESA views it as seed funding for scalable technology. Success could spawn “a new commercial sector in space” for debris removal.
Global efforts echo this: China explores lasers, while SpaceX eyes Starship for deorbiting dead rocket stages en route to the Moon or Mars.
