Astroscale’s ELSA-d spacecraft. Photo: Astroscale

Astroscale has paused its ELSA-d mission after detecting a spacecraft anomaly, the company said in a statement late Wednesday. 

Astroscale said that on Jan. 25, ELSA-d servicer spacecraft began operations to demonstrate autonomous capture in orbit. The servicer spacecraft successfully released its client spacecraft and began autonomous relative navigation. But after an “excellent start” the team detected anomalous spacecraft conditions. Astroscale did not specify what the anomaly was. 

“For the safety of the mission, we have decided not to proceed with the capture attempt until the anomalies are resolved,” Astroscale said. “Both spacecraft are operational and safely separated. We are in communication with agencies, regulators, space surveillance networks, and our orbital neighbors.”  

ELSA-d is Astroscale’s End-of-Life Services demonstration mission, tasked with proving out the technologies involved with debris docking and removal. Last year in August, the spacecraft successfully demonstrated its ability to capture a client spacecraft during the magnetic capture test, one of a few tests the spacecraft was tasked with performing during the mission. The magnetic capture demonstration involved releasing the client spacecraft from the servicer and re-capturing it to validate that the magnetic capture system worked.