The spacecraft is designed to drag two dead satellites into Earth’s atmosphere, where they are expected to disintegrate. The mission is slated to launch in 2029 and be completed by 2032

October 27, 2026 11:26 a.m.

An artistic rendering of ClearSpace U.K.'s planned spacecraft © ClearSpace

Satellites are cluttering Earth orbit , and the defunct ones are considered human-made junk. Now, the United Kingdom is developing a first-of-its-kind mission to clean up after its space program that could pave the way toward a long-term strategy for mitigating the risks of space debris.

The U.K.’s Active Debris Removal (U.K. ADR) mission aims to send a refuelable spacecraft with giant robotic claws into Earth orbit to grab two dead satellites and fling them into our planet’s atmosphere, where they will burn up, according to a government statement . The spacecraft is slated to launch from Scotland in 2029 and will be built by the U.K.…