Spacecraft travels to metal object orbiting Earth, snaps stunning views

A space reconnaissance mission has returned unprecedented imagery of a metal hunk zooming around Earth.

The discarded three-ton rocket, a robust piece of space junk some 36 feet (11 meters) long, is the type of problematic debris agencies seek to remove from our planet's orbit. A future collision could spawn thousands more objects, posing threats to satellites and potentially the International Space Station. The Japanese satellite technology company Astroscale plans to remove this spent rocket stage, but is first gathering more information on the rocket's condition and motion.

Astroscale used its ADRAS-J spacecraft to carefully approach the metallic debris, coming within some 164 feet (50 meters) and capturing the detailed footage below.

"Hey space debris, we're watching you from every angle!" the company posted online. "ADRAS-J has completed not one, but TWO fly-arounds of the upper stage, confirming the planned capture point has no major damage. This milestone sets the stage for future removal and a sustainable space environment!"

Operating in such close orbital proximity to another object is daunting. Many objects in Earth's lower orbit travel at some 7 to 8 kilometers per second (15,660 to 17,895 mph). The company first attempted a fly-around in June, but an anomaly prompted the satellite to abort. "ADRAS-J safely maneuvered away from the upper stage as designed, demonstrating the effectiveness of its on-board collision avoidance system in safely approaching a non-cooperative object," Astroscale said in a statement.

But as the imagery below shows, the next flybys on July 15 and 16 were successful.

Views of the large rocket debris orbiting Earth. Credit: Astroscale

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The greater space debris removal mission is part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA, which is Japan's NASA counterpart) "Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration" project, which seeks a proven way to remove problematic space junk from Earth's orbit.

"We selected this target because it is a large piece of space debris and there are many similarly shaped (cylindrical) pieces on the [space debris] list," Yamamoto Toru, who leads Japan's commercial removal mission, said in a statement. "If we are successful, we expect to be able to apply these techniques to the removal of similarly shaped space debris."

With the reconnaissance now complete, Astroscale will next attempt to capture the debris (using a spacecraft currently under construction) with a robotic arm, and bring the rocket stage down to a lower orbit. Eventually, it will largely burn up in Earth's atmosphere. In the future, the hope among spacefaring nations and commercial space interests is to keep low Earth orbit (LEO) largely clear of threatening space debris — especially inert craft that can't maneuver on their own.

"LEO is an orbital space junk yard," NASA explains. "There are millions of pieces of space junk flying in LEO. Most orbital debris comprises human-generated objects, such as pieces of spacecraft, tiny flecks of paint from a spacecraft, parts of rockets, satellites that are no longer working, or explosions of objects in orbit flying around in space at high speeds."