NorthStar Earth & Space’s Luxembourg-based subsidiary announced its participation in the European Commission-funded ALBATOR project, an initiative to advance new methods to mitigate the growing threat of orbital debris to satellites and critical defense infrastructure.
According to the company, the effort will focus on developing ion beam shepherd technology, a plasma-based system designed to nudge debris out of orbit without physical contact. Unlike docking or capture, which can increase the risk of collisions or fragmentation, the contactless approach is positioned as a safer and more adaptable solution for space sustainability.
“Space debris represents a growing threat to the safety and sustainability of global space operations,” said Stewart Bain, founder and CEO of Canada-based NorthStar. “ALBATOR demonstrates the power of European collaboration to develop breakthrough technologies.”
NorthStar S.à r.l. said it will contribute its expertise in astrodynamics and space situational awareness to support rendezvous and proximity operations. The company noted these capabilities are intended to enable safe maneuver planning in deorbiting scenarios and complement the project’s plasma physics research and system modeling.
The ALBATOR consortium is coordinated by France’s OSMOS X and also includes Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain and Germany’s Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen and Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, each providing specialized expertise ranging from propulsion development to materials interaction.
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