ClearSpace: Pioneering Europe’s Space Debris Removal and Strategic Autonomy

This short analytical note frames ClearSpace as a question of European strategic autonomy, where a capability becomes strategically and financially relevant through alignment with recognised priorities, not the technology alone. ClearSpace is quietly making space history from its headquarters in Switzerland. This young company has been tasked with a groundbreaking mission: in 2026, its ClearSpace-1 spacecraft will rendezvous with a derelict object in orbit, capture it with a quartet of robotic arms, and drag it down to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. It will be the world’s first attempt to remove a piece of dangerous space debris by a commercial startup – a mission commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA) to kick-start a new “space cleanup” industry. The target is an abandoned payload adapter drifting 660 km above Earth, a vestige of a 2013 European rocket launch. At orbital speeds, even a small scrap of metal can hit with explosive force, so removing this junk isn’t just about tidiness – it’s about protecting the satellites that power our modern life. Why this capability becomes strategically and financially relevant is developed in full in the original DFM publication on DFM Analysis.