Ibadan, 29 January 2026. – Astroscale France, the French subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc., and Exotrail have announced a strategic partnership focused on building deorbiting capabilities in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
As a critical infrastructure, LEO satellites are facing increasing congestion, leading operators to embrace responsible management of a satellite’s end-of-life, as well as work on orbital debris mitigation. These deorbiting capabilities will hence play a key role in ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of space operations.
The partnership between Astroscale France and Exotrail consequently intends to provide operators this opportunity, starting with a first mission before 2030, to prove a controlled and operational deorbiting capability. Exotrail will thereby leverage its spacevan™ service vehicle, while Astroscale France provides its heritage capture system technology and close-proximity operations (RPO) expertise.
“By combining Exotrail’s mission leadership on vehicles and maneuvers with Astroscale’s proven capture and close-proximity operations expertise, we are helping to position France and Europe at the forefront of in-orbit servicing and build a credible, repeatable foundation for this capability in Europe,” said Philippe Blatt, Astroscale France’s Managing Director.
Beyond a first demonstration aimed at a commercial satellite, the partners are also committing to a long-term collaboration built around a shared roadmap, to develop European solutions based on rendezvous and docking technologies. This cooperation fully aligns with objectives of sustainability, space operations safety and technological sovereignty, in line with French and European space priorities.
“Controlled deorbiting and on-orbit rendezvous capabilities are now recognized as critical technological building blocks, for both civilian applications and the future of defense endeavors,” added Jean-Luc Maria, CEO, Exotrail. “By teaming with Astroscale to help secure essential space infrastructures, we add more capabilities to strengthen the resilience of European space architectures and preserve freedom of action in space.”
Exotrail has previously partnered with Astroscale France to complete a related study on a deorbiting mission for a constellation satellite in LEO, based on Exotrail’s spacevan™ and Astroscale’s competences and technologies.
