Tel Aviv-based start up Effective Space Solutions claims that its DeOrbiter microsatellites could not only be used to dispose of defunct geosynchronous satellites, but could also rescue a pair of errant Galileo satellites currently trapped in the wrong orbit and put them back into service.
On August 22, two Galileo satellites were launched atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from the European spaceport in French Guiana. Part of the European 30-satellite constellation satnav system similar to GPS, a malfunction sent the pair into the wrong orbit, where they function, but are effectively useless. That would normally be the very expensive end to the story, but Effective Space believes that the technology it is developing could salvage the two wayward satellites and put them back in their proper orbits using ion-propelled microsatellites.