Ibadan, 4 June 2025. – Astroscale UK has successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for the ELSA-M (End of Life by Astroscale-Multiple) In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD) spacecraft. Set to launch in 2026, ELSA-M will be the world’s first commercial end-of-life service for prepared satellites.
Prepared satellites refer to satellites designed with technologies such as an interface that will enable docking and removal. ELSA-M is consequently progressing towards the next phase, which includes the assembly, integration, and testing of the spacecraft flight model at Astroscale’s facility in Harwell. Launch, commissioning, and in-orbit demonstration activities will subsequently follow.
ELSA-M’s demonstration includes successfully docking, de-orbiting, and releasing a Eutelsat OneWeb client spacecraft, managed through Astroscale’s in-house satellite operations facility. A customer team of both ESA and Eutelsat representatives have also validated ELSA-M’s Critical Design Review across engineering, program management and product assurance disciplines.
ELSA-M improves upon the capabilities Astroscale’s 2021 ELSA-d mission developed and successfully demonstrated. ELSA-d validated the company’s end-of-life technologies by completing unprecedented in-orbit demonstrations, including repeated magnetic captures and controlled close-approach rendezvous operations between the two spacecraft.
“Completing the Critical Design Review for ELSA-M is both a major step for the mission itself and also a major achievement for the UK ISAM industry. The mission is a true partnership between Astroscale UK, the UK Space Agency, ESA and Eutelsat with many industrial partners in the Astroscale ISAM supply chain across all regions of the UK,” said Nick Shave, Managing Director, Astroscale UK.
“With the ever-growing number of satellites in Earth’s orbit, the robust RPO and spacecraft capture capability provided by ELSA-M will revolutionize the delivery of repeatable ADR and other ISAM services as part of a future circular space economy.”
