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Nobu Blogs: How Far Have We Gone And Where Are We Going?
Hey there Sweepers!
I can’t believe that it is already the end of February. There are so many positive stories already this year in the space industry, but I want to particularly congratulate two unprecedented missions: Hayabusa2 for touching down on the surface of an asteroid, and the successful and safe launch of OneWeb’s first six global internet satellites in orbit. It is great to see continuing progress of emerging space missions across the world!
It is clear that the era of commercial space is well underway and shows no signs of slowing down. With this increasing use of space, it is encouraging and important that governments and international agencies worldwide are also becoming more aware of the need to regulate and protect Earth’s orbits. I am proud that space sustainability is now regarded as a social imperative under the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN, and that Astroscale is now widely viewed as an innovative and essential player in that context.
Astroscale is now in its sixth year and continues to grow with increased enthusiasm and commitment to clean up space. Our Japan and UK teams are preparing for the launch of our pioneering ELSA-d (End-of-Life Service by Astroscale demonstration) mission which is scheduled to launch on a Soyuz-2 rocket from Balkonur in early 2020. We’ll be giving you updates on social media and through this blog throughout the year on our progress. Stay tuned!
This will be a busy next couple years for Astroscale and we hope to catch you at one of the many global conferences we will be attending throughout the year. We’ll be at Space Symposium in April (where we will be making a big announcement about our expanding global presence…), Satellite 2019 in May, SmallSat Conference in August, UK Space Conference in September and the IAC in October, as well as several others.
Until next time… keep space sustainable!
Nobu Okada
