The American subsidiary of Astroscale won a $ 25.5 million contract in 2023 from the US Space Force to build a satellite tank that can jump around the geostationary job. Just like the Adras-J mission, this project is a public-private partnership, in which astro scale commits $ 12 million of its own money. In January, the Japanese government selected AstroSchaal for a contract worth a maximum of $ 80 million to prove chemical refueling in a job with a low earth.
The last victory for Astroscale came on Thursday, when the Japanese Ministry of Defense gave the company a contract to develop a prototypes satellite that could fly in geostationary job and collect information about other objects in the domain for the military and intelligence services of Japan.
“We are very bullish about the prospects for defense -related matters,” says Nobu Matsuyama, Chief Financial Officer of AstroSchale.
The other projects of astroscal include a life extension mission for a non -ignored customer in a geostationary job, which offers a similar service such as Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV).
So, can AstroSchaal really do this all? In an era of a militarized last border, it is easy to see the usefulness to stand next to a “non-cooperative” satellite-Whether it is now to refuel, repair it, the orbit, inspect it or (crave breath!) Switch it off. The demonstration of Astroscale with Adras-J showed that it can work safely near another object in space without navigation aids, which is fundamental for one of these applications.
Up to now, governments have stimulated the demand for this type of work.
Astroscale collected almost $ 400 million in venture capital financing before he became public in the Tokyo Stock Exchange in June. After he quickly exhibited to almost $ 1 billion, the market rating of the company fell to around $ 540 million from Thursday. Astroscale has around 590 full -time employees at all its operational locations.
Matsuyama said that the total backlog of Astroscale is appreciated at around 38.9 billion yen, or $ 260 million. The company is still in a disaster-up phase and reports operational losses on the balance sheet and steep research and development spending that Matsuyama said that this year should be maximum.
“We are the only company that has proven RPO technology for non-cooperative objects, such as debris, in space,” said Okada last month.
“In simple terms, this approach means the recording of objects,” Okada continued. “This possibility did not exist for us, but a person's mastering of this technology allows you to not only offer debris removal service, but also to a job correction, refueling, inspection, observation and ultimately repairing and reusing.”
