Astrium UK, a division of France-based Astrium, is developing a technology to harpoon redundant satellites out of orbit.

Old spacecraft have become a growing problem as they pose a collision risk to satellites as well as the International Space Station (ISS).

Astrium UK harpoon designer Jaime Reed was quoted by BBC as saying that the space was a prominent part of global infrastructure, from weather forecasting and Earth observation to GPS and telecommunications.

"Space junk poses a real threat to these vital services if we do nothing about it, and so it’s very important we develop capture technologies to remove some of this material."

"Space junk poses a real threat to these vital services if we do nothing about it, and so it’s very important we develop capture technologies to remove some of this material," Reed added.

Reed proposes to mount a barbed spear, measuring 30cm in length, on a ‘chaser satellite’ that would reach close to 100m of an old satellite and take pictures which would be sent to the Earth in order to assess the target.

Once the chaser satellite moves within 20m, the harpoon could be attached to the top layer of the aimless drifter and then the chaser could pull a cord or even use a different thruster to pull it towards the Earth’s atmosphere, where it could eventually burn up.

However, research is still in its initial stages and is currently being tested at Astrium UK’s Stevenage centre.

In addition, Astrium is experimenting with other ideas that incorporate nets and robotic grappling equipment at its centres in France and Germany.

Over the last five decades, a huge number of redundant spacecraft have been drifting aimlessly in the space, of which more than 22,000 objects have been tracked to date, while 500,000 fragments range between 1cm-10cm and millions more are smaller pieces below than 1cm.