Space Force will be part of Air Force Source: U.S. Air Force Space Force will be part of Air Force Source: U.S. Air Force Close

The last new branch was the Air Force, founded in 1947.

Source: SSTL Source: SSTL Close

The success of the harpoon firing marks the third successful experiment for the RemoveDEBRIS project which has already demonstrated a net capture experiment and trialed its state-of-the-art LiDAR based vision navigation system to identify a target cubesat.

The RemoveDEBRIS satellite platform was designed and manufactured by SSTL to house two target cubesats and four debris removal technologies -- a net, a harpoon, vision based navigation using cameras and LiDaR, and a de-orbit dragsail. The spacecraft is operated in orbit by SSTL's engineers from our Spacecraft Operations Centre here in Guildford.

The RemoveDEBRIS team is now preparing for the final experiment, which is set to take place in March and sees RemoveDEBRIS inflate a sail that will drag the satellite into Earth’s atmosphere where it will be destroyed.

The US Space Surveillance Network tracks 40,000 objects and it is estimated that there are more than 7,600 tons of ‘space junk’ in and around Earth’s orbit - with some moving faster than a speeding bullet, approaching speeds of 30,000 miles per hour.

The RemoveDEBRIS consortium consists of:

-- Mission and consortium coordination -- Surrey Space Centre (UK)

-- Satellite system engineering -- ArianeGroup (France)

-- Platform, avionics and spacecraft operations -- SSTL (UK)

-- Harpoon -- Airbus (UK)

-- Net -- Airbus (Germany)

-- Vision based navigation -- CSEM (Switzerland)/ INRIA/ Airbus (France)

-- CubeSat dispensers -- Innovative Solutions in Space (Netherlands)

-- Target CubeSats -- Surrey Space Centre (UK)/ Stellenbosch University (South Africa)

-- Dragsail -- Surrey Space Centre (UK)

SPHEREx Source: JPL SPHEREx Source: JPL Close

The SPHEREx mission will study the nature of physics that drove cosmic inflation in the early universe; determine the properties of interstellar ices, a key reservoir for water and biogenic material in the early phases of star and planet formation; and probe the cosmic history of galaxy formation. Dr. James Bock of the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) is the principal investigator for SPHEREx and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the managing center.

The SPHEREx bus will be based on the Ball Aerospace customizable and proven line of Ball Configurable Platform (BCP) spacecraft, designed for flexible, cost-effective applications, using a common spacecraft bus and standard payload interfaces to reduce cost, streamline payload accommodation and minimize delivery time. T

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