{"id":328840,"date":"2026-03-14T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T05:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/328840\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T05:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T05:00:16","slug":"isar-aerospace-to-launch-astroscale-elsa-m-orbital-debris-removal-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/328840\/","title":{"rendered":"Isar Aerospace to Launch Astroscale ELSA-M Orbital Debris Removal Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Isar-Aerospace-to-Launch-Astroscale-ELSA-M-Orbital-Debris-Removal-Mission.webp.webp\" alt=\"Tokyo-headquartered Astroscale has selected Isar Aerospace to launch its ELSA-M orbital debris removal demonstrator no earlier than 2028.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6219 lazyload\"  data- style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 800px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 800\/500;\"\/>Credit: Astroscale<\/p>\n<p>Tokyo-headquartered Astroscale Holdings has selected Isar Aerospace to launch its ELSA-M orbital debris removal demonstration mission no earlier than 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Isar Aerospace is preparing for the second flight of its two-stage rocket, Spectrum, after the <a href=\"https:\/\/europeanspaceflight.com\/inaugural-isar-aerospace-spectrum-flight-ends-in-failure\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first flight failed shortly after liftoff in early 2025<\/a>. The launch is currently scheduled for no earlier than 19 March from the And\u00f8ya Spaceport in Norway.<\/p>\n<p>On 13 March, Astroscale announced that its UK subsidiary had signed a launch contract with Isar Aerospace to launch its ELSA-M mission, which will demonstrate the safe removal of multiple satellites from orbit once they have reached the end of their operational lives. While the development of ELSA-M has been primarily funded privately by the company, the project has also received support from the UK Space Agency through the European Space Agency\u2019s Connectivity and Secure Communications programme.<\/p>\n<p>According to Astroscale, the ELSA-M demonstrator is expected to be launched aboard a Spectrum rocket in \u201cFY2028 or later.\u201d This projection represents a two-year delay from the expected 2026 launch date that the company was still sharing as recently as June 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In its announcement, the company noted that Isar Aerospace will conduct \u201cmultiplier launches\u201d of its Spectrum rocket before carrying the ELSA-M demonstrator, which will \u201cenhance the reliability of the launch vehicle.\u201d It is unclear whether these planned launches ahead of the mission are related to the revised launch timeline.<\/p>\n<p>While the company is preparing for a second attempt to achieve the first successful flight of its Spectrum rocket, Isar Aerospace is also working to ramp up to an operational launch cadence, revealing in January that the rockets for flights three to seven were already in production. The company is also working on multiple projects to increase its industrial capacity.<\/p>\n<p>On 4 February, Isar Aerospace announced that it will be <a href=\"https:\/\/europeanspaceflight.com\/isar-aerospace-to-expand-testing-facilities-as-it-prepares-for-next-spectrum-flight\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">expanding its testing facilities at the Esrange Space Centre<\/a> in Sweden. The new facilities will enable the company to test 30 of its Aquila rocket engines per month. The company is also in the final stages of building out its new 40,000-square-metre headquarters near Munich. Once complete, the facility will have the capacity to produce up to 40 Spectrum rockets per year.<\/p>\n<p>        Keep European Spaceflight Independent<\/p>\n<p>Your donation will help European Spaceflight to continue digging into the stories others miss. Every euro keeps our reporting alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Astroscale Tokyo-headquartered Astroscale Holdings has selected Isar Aerospace to launch its ELSA-M orbital debris removal demonstration mission&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[25738,111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-328840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-isar-aerospace","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}