The test unit was flown into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket<\/a> and handed off to astronauts aboard the station. According to TransAstra\u2019s founder Joel Sercel<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cWe went from a sketch on a whiteboard to delivered hardware for the flight demonstration in seven months \u2014 in the space business, that\u2019s unheard of.\u201d The bag\u2019s material, a mix of kevlar and aluminum, makes it both lightweight and durable, and, crucially, adaptable to objects of different shapes.<\/p>\n The next step is already underway. A 10-meter version of the Capture Bag is now in development, financed by $5 million in funding, half of it from NASA. The plan is to test it first on space junk. The bag will latch onto defunct satellites drifting in unused orbits and drag them out of the way. Only once the system proves reliable will it be used for asteroid retrieval.<\/p>\n Using a Custom Telescope Network<\/p>\n TransAstra has set up a network of specialized telescopes across California, Arizona, and Australia, with another site planned for Spain. These telescopes, called Sutter, are designed specifically to spot small near-Earth asteroids<\/a> that follow stable orbits similar to our planet.<\/p>\n Sercel explained that the company is focusing on a population of asteroids that drift past Earth at a relatively close distance\u201cjust a few billion kilometers.\u201d. In line with CNN\u2018s report<\/a>, TransAstra has already identified hundreds of viable candidates, and it intends to retrieve the first one by 2028. <\/p>\n The aim isn\u2019t to haul asteroid materials back to Earth. As Sercel noted in the interview, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make economic sense.\u201d Instead, the minerals would be used directly in space or support deep-space missions. This would dramatically cut costs compared to launching components from Earth.<\/p>\n Asteroid Mining May Start With Debris Removal<\/p>\n TransAstra\u2019s big goal is asteroid mining, but for now, the focus is on space junk. Their inflatable bag will first be used to catch dead satellites, still floating up there and causing problems. <\/p>\n \u201cThat 10-meter capture bag will be big enough to find satellites that are in graveyard orbits but might be causing navigational issues. It will capture them and move them to a safer place. That\u2019s an important mission,\u201d Sercel explained.<\/p>\n Some researchers are cautiously optimistic. Eleonora Botta<\/a>, from the University at Buffalo, thinks the bag is a smart idea because it can handle objects of all shapes and spins\u2014but she points out that scaling it up and deploying it in orbit won\u2019t be easy. John Crassidis<\/a>, also from Buffalo, likes the approach, especially the telescope system, but says aiming for an asteroid mission by 2028 might be pushing it. His main concern: will they find enough asteroids to make it worth the cost?<\/p>\n Other companies have tried and failed, Planetary Resources, Deep Space Industries, and more recently Astroforge, which lost contact with its Odin spacecraft right after launch. Still, TransAstra has more funding, solid partners, and a clear roadmap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An American startup has come up with a surprisingly simple tool to solve one of space\u2019s most complex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":{"0":"post-141980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/A-Sutter-telescope-array-configuration.webp.webp\")
A Sutter telescope array configuration. Credit: TransAstra<\/p>\n![\"Transastra\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TransAstras-capture-bag-was-onboard-the-ISS-and-was-fully-deployed-in-the-Bishop-Airlock-chamber-of-.webp\")
TransAstra\u2019s capture bag was onboard the ISS and was fully deployed in the Bishop Airlock chamber of Voyager Technologies. Credit: TransAstra<\/p>\n