Italy’s D-Orbit lands €119M ESA contract to service satellites in space

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a €119mn contract with Italian scaleup D-Orbit for its first in-orbit servicing mission, RISE. 

Scheduled for launch in 2028, RISE will attempt to rendezvous with, maneuver, and detach from an ESA satellite in geostationary orbit. Then it will embark on an 8-year mission, visiting several other satellites and giving them a new lease on life.  

RISE, which is about the size of a minivan, will be like a car mechanic, but for aging spacecraft. It will refuel them, repair them, relocate them to a different orbit, and even attach them with a module that will take over their propulsion and navigation. 

“Now that we are able to, we want to move away from single-use, disposable satellites and instead, as the technologies continue to develop, start extending satellites’ lifetime and service them right where they are, in orbit around Earth,” said Andrew Wolahan, RISE project manager at ESA. 

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The space mechanic’s first client is likely to be a telecommunications satellite that’s running low on fuel but still has the capacity to keep connecting people worldwide, said ESA. If successful, D-Orbit will be the first European company to demonstrate in-orbit servicing.

A circular economy in space 

Filling up our car with petrol, driving it until it runs empty, and then abandoning it on the side of the road isn’t something we’d do on Earth. But that’s how things have worked in space for a long time. This is not only expensive, but one of the root causes of space debris. 

The aim of RISE is to extend the operational life of satellites and dispose of them safely, so that they don’t contribute to the growing cosmic traffic jam.  

At present, there are over 34,000 pieces of space junk larger than 10 centimetres circling around our world. What’s more, there are about 6,500 operational satellites in orbit, a number expected to exceed 27,000 by the decade’s end. 

All these objects are increasing the risk of collisions with other satellites, space stations, or even people down on Earth. If the build-up of trash continues at this rate, some regions of space could become unusable. And for those of us on Earth, the litter’s ruining our views of the cosmos.

In parallel with RISE, ESA is collaborating with Swiss startup ClearSpace on a mission focused on debris removal. ClearSpace-1, scheduled for launch by 2026, aims to actively remove a piece of space debris from orbit. Both RISE and ClearSpace-1 highlight Europe’s commitment to creating a circular economy in space. 

The news comes just two weeks since D-Orbit announced it had closed a €150mn Series C funding round, one of the largest space deals of the past year.