Astroscale, the Japanese space venture company, has officially become a defense contractor with the award of a contract to develop a “responsive space system demonstration satellite” for Japan’s Ministry of Defense.
Announced on February 27, the three-year project will start with the development and testing of a “proto-flight” model that will then be launched to demonstrate space domain awareness, surveillance, intelligence and operational capabilities.
“This contract marks a significant milestone as Astroscale Japan expands into the security and defense sector,” Astroscale managing director Eddie Kato told the press, “Alongside our existing government and commercial business, we have established a third pillar of our operations.”
Until recently, Astroscale has been known primarily for its work on space debris tracking and removal. That is how it advertised itself and how it was presented by the Japanese media when it went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in June 2024.
However, it should be obvious that identification, interception and removal of space debris (including satellites, defunct or otherwise) requires a high degree of being able to see and track other objects in orbit and space.
This ability to keep track of satellites, rockets and space debris, which requires telescopes, optical sensors and radars, is officially called space domain awareness (or space situational awareness). It is and always has been a dual-use technology applicable to military as well as civilian purposes.
NASA defines space situational awareness as “the requisite current and predictive knowledge of the space environment and the operational environment upon which space operations depend… [It] provides knowledge and understanding of threats posed to space systems by adversaries and the environment [italics added] and is essential in developing and employing space asset protection measures.”
In April 2024, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) selected Astroscale as the private sector partner for Phase II of its Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration program.
In Phase I of the program, Astroscale was responsible for preliminary design, navigation sensor development and other aspects of the ADRAS-J close proximity observation satellite. Phase II moves on to detailed design, ground testing, assembly and mission operations.
ADRAS-J (Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan) was presented as “the world’s first attempt to safely approach and characterize an existing piece of large debris through Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) and is the start of a full-fledged debris removal service.”
Japan’s Ministry of Defense’s award followed the February 11 announcement that Astroscale’s UK subsidiary had successfully completed the Mid-Term Review of the current development phase of the UK Active Debris Removal mission with the UK Space Agency.
Astroscale UK has also been selected as a prime contractor for the European Space Agency’s Capture Bay for Active Debris Removal for In-Orbit Demonstration mission.
On January 14, Astroscale UK announced a multiyear contract with leading UK defense contractor BAE Systems for work on In-situ Space Situational Awareness (ISSA). Specific details were not disclosed. ISSA refers to the capability of one spacecraft to monitor another – in other words, spy satellites that spy on other satellites.
Astroscale points out that “Before we can safely remove defunct satellites and other debris from orbit, we must understand them. ISSA includes the location, close approach and rendezvous with an object, followed by the acquisition of in-space data to better understand the movement characteristics of the object.”
For the US Space Force, “Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power” is… focused on delivering cyber, ground- and space-based systems that rapidly detect, warn, characterize, attribute, and predict threats to national, allied, and commercial space systems, while also providing National Security deterrence capabilities countering those identified threats to prevail in a space conflict.
International executive line-up
Astroscale was founded in Japan in 2018. It is headquartered in Tokyo, but has evolved into a multinational enterprise with subsidiaries in the UK, US, France and Israel. The composition of the company’s top management reflects its close association with the space and defense establishments of these nations and related industries:
Nobu Okada, Astroscale’s CEO, has served as a member of the Subcommittee on Space Space Industry at the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan and is a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society of the UK. He was previously an IT entrepreneur and consultant active in Japan, China, India and Singapore.
Chief Operating Officer Chris Blackerby was previously NASA attache for Asia and the senior space policy official in the US Embassy, Tokyo.
Chief Technology Officer Mike Lindsay served as director of spectrum architecture at satellite communications service provider OneWeb, where he oversaw mission design, systems engineering and spacecraft performance. He also worked at NASA and Google.
Chief Engineer Gene Fujii was previously a space technology executive at ORBCOMM and a senior systems engineer at Orbital Sciences (subsequently acquired by Northrop Grumman) working on commercial low earth and geostationary satellites and launch vehicles.
Nick Shave, managing director of Astroscale UK, was formerly chairman of UKspace, the trade association of the UK space industry, and vice president of strategic programmes at satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat.
Ron Lopez, president and managing director of Astroscale US, began his career as an intelligence officer in charge of developing space situational awareness capabilities at the US Air Force Space Command. He later worked at Boeing and led the Defense & Space Asia Pacific sales team at Honeywell Aerospace.
Eddie Kato, president and managing director of Astroscale Japan, previously ran a space and telecommunications consulting firm in Washington, DC. Before that, he was a senior executive at Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between the French aerospace and defense company Thales and Italian defense contractor Leonardo. He also worked in the space divisions of Lockheed Martin, GE and Mitsubishi Electric.
Philippe Blatt, managing director of Astroscale France, has worked first as a systems engineer and then as an executive at Thales and Thales Alenia on programs with the French armed forces, the Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales, the UK Ministry of Defence and the European Space Agency.
Ofir Azriel, managing director of Astroscale Israel began his career as a satellite engineer in the Israeli Air Force and worked as a systems engineer at Israel Aerospace Industries. He then founded on-orbit servicing company Effective Space Solutions and, four years later, handled its acquisition by Astroscale, where he first served as vice president of engineering.
This executive line-up suggests that Astroscale is more than a space environment clean-up company.
Space domain awareness
Astroscale has been working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan’s top defense contractor and rocket maker, to develop on-orbit servicing technologies since 2021.
That same year, it was also selected by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to research and develop robotic arms and hands that can be attached to spacecraft to perform complex servicing activities in orbit and on the moon.
In 2020, Japan created its Space Operations Squadron, the first space domain mission unit of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, “with the main mission of operating the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system, in order to monitor such things as space debris or suspicious satellites, which could pose a threat to Japanese satellites.”
Two years later, the squadron was expanded into the Space Operations Group of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. In 2023, it “commenced the full operation of a system to grasp the position and orbit of space objects.”
Working with JAXA and other organizations, “it conducts monitoring activities around the clock and notifies satellite operators of the possibility of approaching objects.”
Also in 2023, a consortium made up of Astroscale, Raytheon NORSS (Northern Space and Security, a UK-based specialist in space domain awareness) and UK consultancy SJE Space was selected by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory of the UK Ministry of Defense to explore space-based space domain awareness mission concepts for launch in the 2030s.
Speaking at a Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Defense public lecture and panel discussion entitled “Enhancing Japan’s Defense Capabilities and Challenges Beyond 2027,” held in Tokyo on February 27, Air Self-Defense Force Major General Takahiro Kubota told the audience that improving space domain awareness is one of Japan’s top strategic priorities.
Reflecting this, the Japanese Air Force will be renamed the Japan Air and Space Self-Defense Force in fiscal year 2027.
In light of all this, Astroscale’s responsive space system demonstration satellite can be seen as another step toward the development of hunter-killer satellites integrated into the space defense systems of Japan and its allies.
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