Japan’s Ministry of Protection has awarded house servicing firm Astroscale Japan an AUD77.9 million contract to develop a responsive house system demonstration satellite tv for pc prototype.
The venture, working from March 2025 to March 2028, consists of the event and testing of a proto-flight mannequin for a small geostationary demonstration satellite tv for pc.
Within the launch and operations phases, which might be managed underneath a separate contract, the satellite tv for pc will exhibit applied sciences to advance house area consciousness, house surveillance, intelligence gathering, and house operations capabilities.
“This contract marks a major milestone as Astroscale Japan expands into the safety and defence sector,” mentioned Astroscale Managing Director Eddie Kato. “Alongside our current authorities and business enterprise, we’ve established a 3rd pillar of our operations. By leveraging our heritage in rendezvous and proximity operations applied sciences, we’ll adapt our capabilities to the distinctive necessities of this sector.”
This venture represents Astroscale Japan’s entry into the safety and defence sector, as nations search to watch threats and deter adversaries in house. Defence sectors worldwide are more and more recognising the worth of on-orbit servicing and rendezvous and proximity operations in securing satellite tv for pc operations.
By growing a responsive house system prototype, Astroscale Japan will contribute to strengthening the house area consciousness capabilities of the Ministry of Protection and the Japan Air Self-Protection Power. A future on-orbit demonstration goals to enhance autonomous and agile satellite tv for pc operations and house atmosphere monitoring capabilities whereas bolstering the protection and sustainability of Japan’s house operations.
“This contract underscores the world-leading applied sciences we’ve developed in on-orbit servicing” mentioned Kato. “We stay dedicated to advancing our applied sciences throughout all sectors to make sure the protection and sustainability of house.”
Designed particularly for rendezvous and proximity operations and commentary in geostationary orbit, this venture will leverage Astroscale Japan’s heritage rendezvous and proximity operations applied sciences to develop a extremely maneuverable and compact satellite tv for pc in comparison with the historically giant house area consciousness satellites. Optical communication expertise will function the on-orbit infrastructure, enabling exact distant operations, high-speed information transmission and steady communications.
This demonstration is a part of the Ministry of Protection’s broader initiative to ascertain optical communication hyperlinks between geostationary satellites by way of an optical information relay satellite tv for pc.
