Artist rendition of Spire’s Lemur-2 satellite. Photo: Spire

Findus Venture and Spire Global are the latest two companies to look to tackle the big issue of space debris. The two companies announced April 20 that they are collaborating to launch the ADLER-2 satellite in the fourth quarter of 2022, in a bid to tackle the growing problem of space debris.

This new satellite aims to further enhance orbital debris monitoring in low earth orbit, and expand novel atmospheric sensing capabilities to study clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere. ADLER-2 will be a multi-payload satellite that uses Spire’s LEMUR 6U platform and will carry three customer payloads. ADLER-2 is expected to help increase the debris detection rate thanks to use of a debris detection radar with a larger antenna and increased detection range, and also to double the number of observations logged.

This is the second satellite collaboration between Spire and Findus Venture, following the ADLER-1 mission, which is set to launch into space in December 2021. It is a particularly interesting collaboration between an Austrian investment company (Findus) and a New Space player.

“The rapid and substantial growth of space-based activity in recent decades presents us with many opportunities but also significant challenges. Space debris, and the increased risk of collisions between objects, is something we need to manage carefully and as a first step we need to improve our understanding of what is happening and when,” said Theresa Condor, executive vice president and general manager of Spire Space Services.

Spire is currently in the process of going public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).