A Singapore-based company that aims to sweep junk from space has expanded to Tokyo and has handed its biggest broom to 32-year-old female President Miki Ito.
Japanese entrepreneur Nobu Okada founded Astroscale in 2013 to tackle the growing problem of orbiting space debris — man-made scraps ranging in size from disused satellites to tiny metal fragments that have turned Earth's orbit into a deadly minefield.
Experts estimate that roughly 150 million pieces of debris are currently circling Earth at speeds of around 8 km per second — 20 times faster than a bullet — making even flecks of paint lethal to astronauts and putting satellites and rockets in danger of destruction.