SSTL Logo travels to the ISS...and back! 

The Surrey Satellite Technology logo I designed has travelled to the International Space Station (ISS) on the side of the RemoveDebris protective panel...and all the way back! RemoveDEBRIS is the world's first Active Debris Removal demonstration mission. The satellite platform was designed and manufactured by SSTL to accommodate two target cubesats and four debris removal technologies - a net, a harpoon, vision based navigation using cameras and LiDAR, and a de-orbit dragsail.

This protective panel (photo above) is made of honeycomb aluminium and was fitted to the spacecraft for transit and launch to the ISS, where it was unpacked and prepared for deployment from the Kibo airlock by NASA Astronauts. 

After the spacecraft's successful deployment from the ISS on 20th June 2018, the panel was returned to Earth on the next re-supply launcher, and shipped back to SSTL courtesy of NanoRacks.

The project is co-funded by the European Commission and the research leading to the results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n°607099.

Photo above: Emily Kelly, SSTL.

Mission info:

Remove Debris was deployed from the International Space Station on 20th June 2018, with launch service interface and launch provision by NanoRacks and NASA respectively.

The RemoveDEBRIS mission achieved the first ever in-orbit demonstration of space debris capture and performed four active space debris removal technology demonstrations, testing novel technologies, representative of an operational scenario during a low-cost mission. 

SSTL designed and manufactured the Remove Debris satellite platform, which hosted the payloads for use in the debris removal demonstrations. These payloads, or technical content within them, were produced by mission partners Airbus, ArianeGroup, CSEM, Inria, ISIS, SSC, and Stellenbosch University. 

After a successful mission RemoveDEBRIS burned up in Earth's atmosphere on 4th December 2021.

Photos above: NASA/NanoRacks.