Debris dilemma: Japanese mission makes progress in orbital cleanup efforts – Interesting Engineering Achi-News

Astroscale’s ADRAS-J (Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan) mission achieved a successful rendezvous with a second stage H-2A rocket, almost within several hundred kilometers of the drifting object. The spacecraft is now preparing to carry out a detailed inspection of the aging rocket, orbiting it and capturing images.

The rocket’s upper stage, launched in 2009, does not have its own GPS data, making determining a precise location for a rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) mission challenging, Astroscale Japan said in a press release .