By Deirdre Taylor
In 2025, the first active debris removal mission, ClearSpace-1, will rendezvous, capture and take down for reentry the upper part of a Vespa (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter) from Europe's Vega launcher. This was left in an approximately 800 km by 660 km altitude gradual disposal orbit, complying with space debris mitigation regulations, following the second Vega flight in 2013. ClearSpace-1 will use ESA-developed robotic arm technology to capture the Vespa, then perform a controlled atmospheric reentry.
WASHINGTON — A payload adapter that is the target of a European debris cleanup mission may have itself been damaged by a debris impact. The new debris, ESA said, likely originated from Vespa after a collision with a piece of debris too small to be tracked. The incident is ironic because the Vespa adapter is the target of an ESA-backed mission to remove it from orbit. That effort ensured the spacecraft reentered over uninhabited territory to avoid any risk to people on the ground from spacecraft debris that survived reentry. Details about the charter have yet to be published, but the goal is to prevent the creation of new debris in Earth orbit.
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced plans to launch a space debris removal mission in 2025 with the help of a Swiss start-up called ClearSpace. "With space debris, by definition no such control is possible: instead the objects are adrift, often tumbling randomly." If all goes according to plan, the mission will be the first removal of a previously generated piece of space debris from orbit, according to the statement. If all goes according to plan, the team can leverage the same technology to capture larger, more challenging pieces of space debris in future missions. The team plans to first test ClearSpace-1 in a lower orbit of about 310 miles (500 km), prior to launching the mission to capture Vespa in 2025.
―Vespa[src]Princess Vespa was the spoiled daughter of King Roland, the princess of Planet Druidia and Heir Apparent to the Druidian Throne. Vespa, with her Druish Princess self, made the men carry her ridiculous amount of luggage, which they soon abandoned in the sand. [1]As Lone Starr and Barf struggled to unlock the Eagle 5 so that they could help Vespa escape Planet Spaceball, Lone Starr handed Vespa a laser gun and told her to hold off the Spaceball troops pursuing them. [1]After Lone Starr saved Druidia and returned Vespa to King Roland, he turned down the 1,000,000 Spacebucks, as an expression of his love for her. Yogurt then informed Lone Starr that he was really a prince, so he interrupted the wedding to propose to Vespa.
Despite the ironic case, the European Space Agency (ESA) is still set to commission ClearSpace's upcoming ClearSpace-1 mission for its 2026 launch to remove the garbage. This recent event only highlights the fact that humans' growing space industry is also contributing harm to space, and may prove to be dangerous for future space missions. VESPA Space Junk Hit with Space JunkAccording to the recent statement from the ESA, the United States 18th Space Defense Squadron has informed them that the space junk that they are tracking has split into multiple fragments after getting hit by another space junk debris. It broke off into multiple pieces of debris now, instead of being one space junk that the ESA aims to clean up soon through the Swiss start-up, ClearSpace, to undertake the mission. Still, its constant movement makes it a risk for other space junk and future missions, with the ESA's ClearSpace-1 mission with the Swiss company looking to rid of the VESPA junk in less than three years.
I don’t want to declare something “not Star Wars” as that’s kind of a “no true Scotsman” debate that involves a lot of fan gatekeeping and being annoying. It’s awesome that Yellowjacket’s Sophie Thatcher is now in Star Wars, for instance. Again, I’m not classifying it as “not Star Wars,” but I am saying the art direction and costuming here is just not very good. Anyway, Star Wars fans will argue about anything, and youths with rainbow vespas is no different. I personally don’t love the concept and execution here, but Star Wars is sort of whatever you make of it, and I agree that I could definitely see George Lucas doing something like this.
We’ve talked a whole lot about Vespa being in a league of its own with scooters. Vespa explains that “the empty space” is a representation of the brand’s freedom from the limits of time and space. Accompanying Vespa’s Empty Space campaign is what appears to be a clothing collection with a very chic and somewhat ridiculous aesthetic. The catalog consists of stylish clothing that Vespa says is designed to make a statement. It’s obvious that this is exactly what Vespa wants—to make a statement in the world of fashion and leave onlookers second-guessing and asking questions.
