Astroscale France, the French subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings, announced its participation in ECO-Tethers, a new system study under the European Space Agency’s (ESA) FIRST! Technologies in Sustainability for Future Space Transportation programme.
Led by PERSEI Space as prime contractor, and delivered in collaboration with Thales Alenia Space Italy and Astroscale France, the ECO-Tethers project will assess propellant-free technologies for in-space propulsion and deorbiting using electrodynamic tethers. The 12-month study aims to define credible, system-level solutions that may support compliant end-of-life disposal, reduce long-term debris generation and enable more sustainable space transportation architectures.
The project addresses a growing challenge facing the space sector as orbital environments become increasingly congested. Traditional mission models based on “launch, operate, abandon” are no longer sustainable. ECO-Tethers responds by exploring how electrodynamic tethers can deliver orbit clearance and in-space mobility without relying on onboard propellant, supporting both mission extension and responsible disposal.
Astroscale France contributes its operational experience in rendezvous and proximity operations, debris-related missions, and in-orbit servicing to ensure that sustainability objectives are grounded in practical mission design. Drawing on its heritage across inspection, servicing, and removal missions, the team will help translate high-level sustainability goals into operationally viable concepts that can be deployed at scale.
Philippe Blatt, Managing Director of Astroscale France: “ECO-Tethers is an important step in translating Europe’s sustainability ambitions into practical, deployable solutions. By contributing our operational experience Astroscale France is helping ensure that concepts such as propellant-free deorbiting are not only technically sound, but also viable in real mission contexts.”
The ECO-Tethers study will assess multiple use cases, including satellite deorbiting, upper-stage disposal, propellant-free satellite propulsion, and in-orbit servicing scenarios. Sustainability is treated as a core design driver throughout the activity, aligning the project with ESA’s Zero Debris ambitions and Europe’s longer-term objective of building a resilient, service-enabled space ecosystem.
Jesús Manuel Muñoz Tejeda, CEO of PERSEI Space: “Europe already has strong real-world operational experience in space sustainability thanks to Astroscale, and ECO-Tethers gives us a focused framework to explore, together, how propellant-free concepts could fit into future mission architectures.”
All in all, by combining PERSEI Space’s electrodynamic tether expertise, Thales Alenia Space Italy’s system integration and industrial perspective, and Astroscale France’s operational insight from in-orbit servicing missions, ECO-Tethers brings together complementary capabilities required to address one of the most pressing challenges in space today.
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