The Astroscale team. Photo: Astroscale

Astroscale, a Singapore-based company developing a space debris removal service, secured $50 million of new Series D round funding to clean Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The group of investors was led by INCJ, including funds operated by SBI Investment (SBII) and Mitsubishi Estate.

This is the fourth round of funding raised by the company, and brings the total capital raised to $102 million.

Astroscale was founded in 2013, and has already opened a ground station and is establishing an in-orbit ground control facility. The company is currently working on its first debris capture demonstration mission, End of Life Services by Astroscale – Demonstration (ELSA-d), which is scheduled to launch in early 2020. ELSA-d will consist of two spacecrafts, a Chaser and a Target, stacked together. The Chaser will repeatedly release and capture the Target in a series of demonstrations, including rendezvous and docking, and proximity operations. Prior to the mission, Astroscale aims to reinforce its development structure, provide customer services, and build an optimized supply chain.