Satellite Servicing Companies

Astroscale U.S.

Denver, Colorado, United States commercial

Astroscale U.S. is the U.S. subsidiary of Japan-headquartered Astroscale Holdings, established in 2020 and based in Denver, Colorado. The unit serves as Astroscale's primary vehicle for pursuing U.S. government and defense contracts in on-orbit servicing, active debris removal, and space sustainability — areas where export-control and national-security considerations often require a U.S.-domiciled supplier. Astroscale U.S. is the prime contractor for the U.S. Space Force's APS-R (Astroscale Prototype Servicer for Refueling) mission under the SSC Space Mobility and Logistics program, a Tetra-class spacecraft intended to demonstrate refueling of Space Force client vehicles in geosynchronous orbit. The company is also pursuing rendezvous, proximity operations, and servicing (RPO) work for the Defense Innovation Unit and commercial GEO operators. Astroscale's parent company went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2024 under ticker 186A, providing public-market capital to support U.S. contract execution. Astroscale U.S. complements parent operations in Japan (ELSA-d debris demonstration), the UK (COSMIC debris removal), and Israel.

Galactiv

United States commercial

Galactiv is a United States in-space services company developing the Active Space Servicer, a spacecraft designed to capture and service satellites in geosynchronous orbit without interrupting their operation. Planned services include refuelling, repair and relocation of client satellites, plus removal of defunct hardware from the crowded GEO belt. The vehicle is designed for multiple missions across its lifetime: refuelling capability makes the system reusable, while a modular bus is intended to make the servicer itself repairable. Capture robotics allow it to grapple target satellites that were never designed with servicing interfaces, which is the central technical difficulty in the on-orbit servicing market. The company's stated ambition is to field a fleet of Active Space Servicers sized to cover the Americas and meet responsiveness targets for customers whose satellites need urgent intervention. It positions the same fleet as a commercial answer to GEO debris.

Sustain Space is a Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China-based on-orbit servicing (OOS) startup founded in 2022 developing technologies for active debris removal (ADR), satellite refueling, and in-orbit satellite repair — positioning itself as China's leading commercial orbital services company in a sector that has gained significant attention globally following demonstrations by Astroscale (Japan/UK), Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle, and NASA's OSAM-1. The on-orbit servicing market addresses an acute need as the orbital environment fills with aging GEO satellites that have exhausted their onboard propellant (but remain otherwise functional), defunct satellites, and fragmented debris from breakups and collisions. Sustain Space develops the rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) technology, robotic capture mechanisms, and propellant transfer systems required to service satellites already in orbit — either extending their operational lives through refueling, repairing failed components, or actively deorbiting debris. China has a strong national interest in both the commercial OOS market and in demonstrating proximity operations capability for dual-use applications, and Sustain Space operates within China's rapidly expanding commercial space ecosystem (centered in Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou) that has emerged since the 2014-2015 policy opening of the space sector to private enterprise. The company's development status reflects the significant technical and regulatory challenges of commercial OOS operations.