Astroscale secures a contract for the final phase of the ELSA-M mission. Photo: Astroscale

Astroscale secured $15 million to support the final phase of its End-of-Life by Astroscale-Multiple (ELSA-M) in-orbit demonstration. The contract from the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) is another key milestone for the company. It was announced July 22.

The funding was released following the securing of the contract with Eutelsat OneWeb in the context of the Sunrise Partnership Project, a public-private partnership between ESA and the Eutelsat Group. The Sunrise Partnership Project, part of ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) program, aims to develop solutions for future generation telecommunication satellite missions. Both the ARTES programme and Sunrise are supported by the UKSA.

Set to launch during the fiscal year ending in April 2026, ELSA-M aims to be one of the first commercial end-of-life service for prepared satellites. This mission, designed and built by Astroscale UK at the Harwell Campus in Oxford, improves on the capabilities developed and successfully demonstrated by ELSA-d.

ELSA-M Phase 4 includes flight model assembly, integration and testing, launch and commissioning, through in-orbit demonstration activities, and full in-house operations of successfully docking, de-orbiting, and releasing of a Eutelsat OneWeb client spacecraft.