Indian Startup to Test Space Debris Capture Tech on Skyroot Rocket

Cosmoserve Space, a startup developing active debris removal (ADR) technologies, announced that its first orbital technology demonstration will fly aboard Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1 rocket. The approved launch window is between July 12 and August 4.

The mission, named Mission Embrace, aims to achieve the world's first demonstration of soft robotic capture in orbit. Cosmoserve stated that this will be a crucial step toward building orbital infrastructure for a safer, more sustainable, and commercially viable space ecosystem.

Chiranjeevi Phanindra, founder and CEO of Cosmoserve Space, said the technology was developed from concept to flight-ready hardware in four months within a company less than a year old, without compromising engineering rigour. He described the mission as an important milestone for orbital sustainability and space debris removal, highlighting how rapidly India's private space ecosystem can innovate through collaboration.

As satellite constellations expand and orbital congestion increases, technologies for capturing and removing defunct spacecraft are becoming essential. Cosmoserve focuses on scalable ADR and in-orbit servicing technologies.

At the core of its offering is a dual-spacecraft system: a robotic servicer capable of capturing and removing defunct satellites at roughly one-tenth the cost of comparable solutions. The soft robotic capture mechanism is designed to gently latch onto unprepared, non-cooperative objects in orbit, such as dead satellites. Mission Embrace will validate this capture technology in space for the first time.