Hyderabad-based Cosmoserve Space has opened Base 1, which it describes as India's first private facility for satellite servicing and space debris recovery, and one of only six of its kind in the world.
The site brings together a lab for orbital rendezvous and capture, a space robotics lab, a clean room for building satellites and a mission control centre. Besides removing debris, the company wants to repair, refuel and maintain satellites already in orbit.
The problem is large. Of roughly 28,000 satellites in orbit, about 10,000 no longer work, and millions of smaller fragments threaten active missions. Cosmoserve says its two-spacecraft design could cut the cost of servicing a satellite from about $10 million to under $1 million.
The company recently raised $6 million, bringing its total funding to more than $9 million.
