30 October 2026Business

Astroscale named prime contractor on UK MoD's LEDA orbital defence program

The UK Ministry of Defence has chosen Astroscale to lead LEDA, a 15 million pound orbital defence contract.

Diagram of two spacecraft, a larger servicer and a smaller client, connected. — ELSA-d consists of two spacecraft, a Servicer and a Client, launched stacked together. Astroscale via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The UK Ministry of Defence has picked Astroscale as prime contractor for LEDA, a new defence program. The contract is worth 15 million pounds ($20 million) and was announced on 26 October. BAE Systems and Open Cosmos will support as key partners.

The announcement gave few specifics of the mission. It said the contract builds on Astroscale's earlier demonstrations of approaching, inspecting and working alongside other objects in orbit, carried out on the ELSA-d and ADRAS-J missions.

The investment is underpinned by the UK Defence Investment Plan, which has allocated 3.2 billion pounds ($4.3 billion) for space through 2030. The recently published UK Space Strategy names defence and national security as a central priority.

Sourcesatellitetoday.com

Get the day in space before breakfast.