A Space Junk Removal Mission Got Struck by Space Junk

upstart writes:

The ClearSpace-1 mission was going to chuck a defunct payload adapter to its fiery death, but another piece of space debris got to it first:

In a sad case of debris-on-debris crime, a defunct payload adapter that was chosen as the subject of a space debris cleanup mission was itself hit by a piece of space junk.

The VESPA payload adapter has been floating in Earth's orbit following the launch of a Vega rocket in 2013, adding to the thousands of pieces of space junk that currently surround our planet. On August 10, the European Space Agency (ESA) was informed by the United States 18th Space Defense Squadron that new pieces of debris were spotted within the vicinity of the VESPA adapter, suggesting that the object broke up into smaller pieces due to a collision with another piece of space debris.

After a decade in orbit as a useless piece of space junk, VESPA was on the verge of serving a final purpose as the target of ClearSpace-1-a claw-like spacecraft designed to grab space junk and fling it into Earth's atmosphere to burn up. The European mission is slated for launch in 2026, and was meant to rendezvous with VESPA in order to test the new junk removal technology in space.

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