30 July 2024 – Astroscale Japan Inc. announced that its commercial debris inspection demonstration satellite, Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J), has achieved an unprecedented technical milestone for a commercial company: the controlled fly-around operations of the space debris — a rocket upper stage — capturing images from various angles and lighting conditions while maintaining a controlled fixed-point relative position of approximately 50 meters from the upper stage. ADRAS-J is the world’s first attempt to safely approach, characterize and survey the state of an existing piece of large debris through Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO). Read more