Photo: Astroscale

Astroscale has signed a three-year term loan agreement totalling 5 billion Japanese yen ($35 million) with MUFG Bank. (MUFG), leveraging the credit guarantee program offered by Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, JAPAN (SMRJ).

Astroscale is now eligible for funding through SMRJ’s credit guarantee program with a 50% guarantee for principal, up to 2.5 billion yen. The term loan is structured to leverage on the funding scheme, allowing Astroscale to secure 5 billion yen through MUFG, the maximum principal amount covered by a 50% guarantee by the SMRJ.

In 2021, Astroscale successfully launched the End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission, one of the first commercial missions to prove the core technologies for on-orbit satellite servicing in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), leading to complete its mission in complex rendezvous operation through a debris capture and removal demonstration of core technologies.

“On-orbit servicing is poised to make significant contribution to achieving a safe and sustainable space environment (space sustainability) by functioning as infrastructure for the space economy. As our awareness for a sustainable space environment continues to grow over time, we are seeing a sharp rise in demand for our services. We will accelerate on-orbit services technology development through this new term loan in order to meet global needs for satellite servicing,” Nobu Okada, Founder and CEO of Astroscale, said in a statement.