{"id":384571,"date":"2026-03-14T09:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T09:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/384571\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T09:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T09:15:12","slug":"astroscale-selects-isar-aerospace-to-launch-elsa-m-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/384571\/","title":{"rendered":"Astroscale selects Isar Aerospace to launch ELSA-M mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Japanese satellite servicing company Astroscale has selected Isar Aerospace to launch a deorbiting mission developed by its British subsidiary.<\/p>\n<p>Astroscale announced March 13 it signed a contract with Isar to launch its ELSA-M spacecraft on a Spectrum rocket. The launch is scheduled for Astroscale\u2019s 2028 fiscal year, which begins in May 2027. The companies did not disclose the value of the contract.<\/p>\n<p>ELSA-M, or End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-Multiple, is a spacecraft under development by Astroscale U.K. <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/astroscale-clears-critical-design-review-for-oneweb-satellite-removal-demo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to demonstrate the ability to deorbit spacecraft from low Earth orbit<\/a>. It is designed to dock with a defunct OneWeb satellite and lower its orbit for a controlled reentry.<\/p>\n<p>Astroscale did not state why it selected Isar\u2019s Spectrum to launch ELSA-M. <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/isar-aerospaces-first-spectrum-launch-fails\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spectrum has performed one orbital launch attempt to date<\/a>, a flight nearly a year ago that malfunctioned shortly after liftoff from And\u00f8ya, Norway. Isar is gearing up for a second Spectrum launch scheduled for as soon as March 19.<\/p>\n<p>The company noted in a presentation accompanying its fiscal year 2026 third quarter financial results that it expects Spectrum to have completed \u201cseveral\u201d launches by the time ELSA-M is ready for flight.<\/p>\n<p>It added that it was important to have ELSA-M, whose development has been supported by the European Space Agency, to launch from Europe. \u201cLaunching a European-funded ESA mission such as ELSA-M aboard a European rocket carries strong strategic significance for Europe\u2019s independent space-development ambitions,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n<p>ESLA-M is making progress towards that launch, with Astroscale reporting that the spacecraft completed initial environmental tests at the National Satellite Test Facility in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>The mission is one of several in development by Astroscale business units in Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. They include inspection, refueling and life extension spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>Astroscale reported 8.35 billion yen ($52.2 million) in overall income in the first nine months of its fiscal year, which includes both revenue and government subsidies. The company had an operating loss of 7.14 billion yen for the first nine months, in line with full-year projections of an operating loss of 9.3 to 10.3 billion yen.<\/p>\n<p>The company said it is seeing a \u201cclear tailwind\u201d from growing defense interest in satellite servicing capabilities in Europe, Japan and the United States. \u201cAs national space defense strategies continue to materialize into concrete missions, we see significant opportunities to expand our role as a partner supporting the security and resilience of space assets,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Japanese satellite servicing company Astroscale has selected Isar Aerospace to launch a deorbiting mission developed by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[88602,18,176085,19,17,21695,133,3977,451,20991],"class_list":["post-384571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-astroscale","tag-eire","tag-elsa-m","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-isar-aerospace","tag-science","tag-sn","tag-space","tag-spectrum"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116226773771884508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}