After the long fantasised vision of collecting space rubbish left behind by satellite operators and other shippers of machines above our heads, the fight against debris is taking shape: 15 days after confirming its participation in the fundraising of the Canadian company NorthStar--which Luxembourg has been following since its beginnings--the Luxembourg Future Fund is also a stakeholder in the €26.7m fundraising of the Swiss company ClearSpace, contributing €5m.

At the end of December, ClearSpace registered a holding company in Luxembourg. With four years to go before the world’s first space debris removal mission, ClearSpace-1, scheduled to launch in 2026, in this new round of financing was led by OTB Ventures and supported by the European Investment Fund under the InvestEU programme and Swisscom Ventures, with participation from the Luxembourg Future Fund, Lakestar, In-Q-Tel, Happiness Capital and 600 T.

32,480 pieces of debris in orbit and 130m untraceable objects

The startup of Luc Piguet (CEO) and Muriel Richard-Noca (CTO) recently announced a partnership with Intelsat as part of the €110m package negotiated with the European Space Agency, and will be able to go into either low or high orbit.

There are currently 32,480 pieces of debris orbiting the Earth and more than 130m objects ranging from 1mm to 10cm in size that can potentially disrupt a mission or space infrastructure.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.