When Nobu Okada founded his space debris removal start-up Astroscale, in 2013, there was little sense of alarm about the massive volume of material orbiting Earth — outside a small circle of experts.
Almost a decade later, junk accumulated from decades of space exploration and the ensuing environmental crisis are not only widely debated issues, but an increasing source of geopolitical tension between the world’s top superpowers with space ambitions.
For Astroscale and, more broadly, for Japan, debris removal provides a huge market opportunity to take the lead — both in developing the required technology, and in establishing regulation to govern the responsible use of space.
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