The French startup "Dark" announced its establishment at Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (southwest) with the aim of removing space debris that poses a threat to space "infrastructure."

The company, which specializes in space protection and security, expressed its desire in a statement today to clean up space where the risk of collisions due to debris is high.

The company indicated that it has developed a system that allows access to any point in low Earth orbit in less than 24 hours to retrieve hazardous debris, where this process is carried out using a small rocket mounted on a modified aircraft that takes off from the airport with the small rocket attached to its fuselage, before separating from it at a high altitude, at which point it ignites its engines and heads into space, with the first test expected to take place in 2028.

A robot will be responsible for capturing space debris and then disposing of it in the atmosphere at the Point Nemo, the furthest point from land.

"Dark" was founded in 2021 by Clyde Lahain and Guillaume Oufan, who previously worked at the rocket manufacturing company "MBDA."

It is worth noting that the European Space Agency monitors more than 36,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 centimeters, in addition to millions of smaller pieces orbiting the Earth.