With the latest financing, the company says it will be ramping up operations ahead of its ClearSpace-1 mission. This is scheduled to launch in 2026 and is backed by €110 million of funding secured from the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2020. The company describes it as “the world’s first space debris removal mission”.
It is planned to be the first of numerous ClearSpace missions for both low-Earth and geostationary orbits.
The most recent VC investors were led by OTB Ventures and also included the European Investment Fund, Swisscom Ventures, the Luxembourg Future Fund, Lakestar and In-Q-Tel, among others.
As part of the financing – to explain the Luxembourg element – ClearSpace says it will be establishing an operational presence in the Grand Duchy, joining what is an expanding existing space sector.
“Tens of thousands of artificial objects are tracked in orbit around the Earth, with many times that expected to be in orbit but are too small to be tracked,” said Adam Niewiński, the co-founder of OTB Ventures. “ClearSpace is developing key technologies for satellite proximity and rendezvous operations in space, which is essential for the sustainable future of space.”
Space junk
The company recently announced a satellite life-extension project with satcom operator Intelsat, and previously – in September 2022 – the UK Space Agency progressed a previous project for space debris removal also involving Clear Space, working with Astroscale.
Specifically, ClearSpace was awarded £2.2 million to carry out the work – to remove two UK-registered derelict objects from low Earth orbit – in a design phase lasting until October 2023. The commission will finish with a preliminary design review — an evaluation of the progress on the design and the technical adequacy of the proposed mission.
A consortium – led by ClearSpace, along with organisations such as AstroAgency, Deimos, MDA, the Satellite Applications Catapult and the University of Surrey – have started the preliminary design of the mission.
“We began this company 4 years ago with the goal of making space operations sustainable and are delighted to be joined on our journey by our new partner investors,” said ClearSpace Co-founders, CEO Luc Piguet and CTO Muriel Richard-Noca.
“The market is now developing, much faster than we had expected, and we look forward to accelerating our activities to meet the urgent needs of space sustainability.”
Image: ClearSpace, artist’s impression
