Astroscale Is Cleaning Up The Orbital Debris For Future Generation

Mankind has made many successful attempts of reaching into the vastness of space. And, after the first time, many new organizations have come up to serve the same purpose. Thousands of scientists have put their brains together to achieve bigger missions. Every year many nations launch spacecraft to take one more step towards broadening the human territory.

But, as unique as an idea of cleaning the orbital debris doesn’t come from any commoner. We don’t hear about this kind of idea every day which contributes to the well-being of the universe. Nobu Okada, founder of Astroscale made everyone realize why is it so important to remove trash from space and himself doing it.

What is Astroscale?

Astroscale is a worldwide famous company founded by Nobu Okada in 2013. It is a private company that serves the sole purpose of cleaning the spatial orbits. We know, every year a lot of spaceships are launched from earth. Some of which successfully land and the rest get lost in the way. The remaining parts of these gigantic machines can create problems in the future. When other spacecraft will be launched, these might come in its way and hamper the mission.

So, Nobu Okada came up with this idea and the company is going to launch its demonstration mission in 2020. The name of the program is End-Of-Life-Service and it’s determined to retrieve every piece of junk from the orbits.

Nobu Okada

Nobu went to the University of Tokyo and acquired his bachelor’s degree in Genetics. He also went to Stanford University for pre-MBA and in 1999 went to Purdue University Krannert School of Management for his MBA.

In 1997, Nobu joined the Japanese Ministry of Finance as a Government Office and continue his work for three years. While doing his MBA, he joined McKinsey & Company as an Engagement Manager and worked for four years. In August 2004, he became the CFO and Director of Turbolinux and then in 2006 became the Director of Kazaka Financial Group.

After serving as the Vice President of Brain Capital for a year he founded SUGAO PTE, an IT company. Currently, he is the CEO of his latest company, Astroscale.

The Beginning

Nobu Okada had no idea about aerospace engineering. This guy studied genetics, went for the finance industry, and established his career in the IT industry. No one but him came up with an idea mentioned nowhere earlier in the history of science. Nobu says he just wanted to do something meaningful in his life and a great contribution to society.

Nobu always had a soft corner for space and he also attended a space camp at the age of fifteen. There he received a message from Mamoru Mohri that space is a place where one can make great contributions. Nobu proved how much right he was.

Initially, when he thought of this idea, nobody supported him saying it wasn’t realistic enough. There was negativity everywhere, but he didn’t give in. Nobu thought when it is for the betterment of the world someone has got to do it. And, he became the knight in the shining armor.

Much Appreciation

Since Nobu has no idea about the study of space, he went through more than 700 research papers regarding space debris, contacted many academic institutions and people who are in an executive position in the space industry. He was too stubborn to give up!

Finally, a company called Yuki Precision Co. showed interest in this project idea. Another company called OSG Corp also showed interest. With their support, he finally launched the company. In 2015, the company raised the US $7.7 million and also established an R&D facility in Tokyo. The capital was invested to carry out researches for space debris removal missions and making small satellites.

In next year, the company raised another $35 million and in 2017 raised $25 million in Series C funding. This year, the company came into a partnership with JAXA permitting them to use JAXA’s testing facilities. In November 2017, the company launched its first rocket. The take-off was smooth but it didn’t reach the targeted orbit.

Currently, the company is busy working for the ELSA-d mission. The mission will consist of two spacecraft, namely, a Servicer and a Client. The mission will be operated from the National In-orbit Servicing Control Centre Facility in Harwell, Oxfordshire. Nobu wants to make a dynamic change as early as possible thinking about future space missions.