Ibadan, 10 March 2026. – Astroscale France, the French subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings Inc. has announced its participation in ECO-Tethers, a new system study under the European Space Agency’s FIRST! Technologies in Sustainability for Future Space Transportation program.
Led by PERSEI Space as prime contractor, and delivered in collaboration with Thales Alenia Space Italy and Astroscale France, the ECO-Tethers project will assess propellant-free technologies for in-space propulsion and deorbiting using electrodynamic tethers.
The 12-month study intends to define credible, system-level solutions that may support compliant end-of-life disposal, reduce long-term debris generation, and enable more sustainable space transportation architectures. It also addresses a growing challenge facing the space sector as orbital environments become increasingly congested and traditional mission models based on “launch, operate, abandon” become unsustainable.
ECO-Tethers consequently responds by exploring how electrodynamic tethers can deliver orbit clearance and in-space mobility without relying on onboard propellant, supporting both mission extension and responsible disposal.
Astroscale France is therefore contributing its operational experience in rendezvous and proximity operations, debris-related missions, and in-orbit servicing to ground sustainability study objectives in practical mission design. Drawing on its heritage across inspection, servicing, and removal missions, the team will help translate high-level sustainability goals into operationally viable concepts that are deployable at scale.
“ECO-Tethers is an important step in translating Europe’s sustainability ambitions into practical, deployable solutions, explained Philippe Blatt, Managing Director of Astroscale France. “By contributing our operational experience, Astroscale France is helping ensure that concepts such as propellant-free deorbiting are not only technically sound, but also viable in real mission contexts.”
The ECO-Tethers study will subsequently assess multiple use cases, including satellite deorbiting, upper-stage disposal, propellant-free satellite propulsion, and in-orbit servicing scenarios. More so, the study will regard sustainability as a core design driver throughout, aligning the project with ESA’s Zero Debris ambitions and Europe’s longer-term objective of building a resilient, service-enabled space ecosystem.
By combining PERSEI Space’s electrodynamic tether expertise, Thales Alenia Space Italy’s system integration and industrial perspective, and Astroscale France’s operational insight from in-orbit servicing missions, ECO-Tethers brings together complementary capabilities necessary to address one of the most pressing challenges in space today.
