UK asks the public to name its space junk clean-up mission

Britain's first national space mission needs a name, and the UK Space Agency is asking the public to choose it. The spacecraft will be used for the UK Active Debris Removal mission (UK ADR), which the government announced this week together with a naming competition. The Register picked up the call for names on Saturday.

What the mission will do

UK ADR is designed to remove two defunct UK-registered satellites from low Earth orbit. The spacecraft will grab each one and release it into a lower orbit, where it will burn up in the atmosphere, then move on to the next target. The government calls it a world first, as no spacecraft has disposed of more than one satellite this way.

• Funding: more than £60m from the UK government; ClearSpace puts its prime contract at £61m.
• Who builds it: ClearSpace UK, with the UK Space Agency acting as the government customer.
• Launch: planned for 2029 from SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland, Scotland.
• Finish line: both satellites should be removed by 2032.
• Reusable: the spacecraft is designed to be refuellable, so it could keep working after this mission.

"Our next step is to design, build and test a spacecraft that can get close, safely, to an object never designed to be caught, and take control of it," said Rob Atchison, managing director of ClearSpace UK.

Why it matters

The government says hundreds of thousands of tracked debris objects travel at more than 17,000 mph, which is fast enough to damage the satellites behind GPS, weather forecasts and communications. Today, most satellites are simply abandoned when they run out of fuel or fail. Capturing objects that were never designed to be serviced is a key skill for future repair, refuelling and in-orbit manufacturing.

How the naming contest works

Entries need a name of no more than two words (or an acronym) and an explanation of up to 150 words on how it reflects keeping space clean and safe. Military themes, brands, existing spacecraft names and anything offensive are out. The competition closes at 5pm GMT on 10 December 2026, and the winning name will appear on the mission patch and the spacecraft.

For more on keeping an eye on the space around Earth, see our story on ESA's Sawa space weather mission and Blue Origin's push for more frequent launches from Florida.