Astroscale Japan has shown images of orbital debris and demonstrated the ability of its spacecraft to avoid adding to the problem thanks to an autonomous collision avoidance system.
Astroscale's ADRAS-J successfully demonstrates fly-around observations of space debris
The ADRAS-J spacecraft was launched on a rocket lab electron in February — a mission called "On Closer Inspection" — to examine an abandoned HII-A upper stage.
The spacecraft came within several hundred meters of the 11-meter upper stage rocket body in April and was within 50 meters by the end of May. On June 19, the re-flight began while maintaining a fixed distance of 50 meters, the company stated today.
Abandoned HII-A upper stage taken by ADRAS-J (Credit: Astroscale)
