PERIGEE — GROUND LINK ESTABLISHED
TARGET CATALOG 62013 — LOCKED · RANGE 41.7 M
CAPTURE RING CLOSED — OK
THE FIRST CONTROLLED FALL.
FALL-1 carried 1.9 tonnes of dead satellite out of orbit — 700 kilometres up, straight into the South Pacific. The whole descent took 53 minutes. We intend to repeat it.
ALT700.0 KM
VEL7.51 KM/S
ΔV132 M/S PLANNED
PHASECAPTURE COMPLETE
TARGETCATALOG 62013
INCL82.9°
SPACE JUNK DOESN'T FALL. IT WAITS.
Every satellite ever launched is still up there, in one form or another. Forty thousand objects big enough to track, ten thousand tonnes of dead mass, moving at seven and a half kilometres per second. The sky is not empty. It is a parking lot at speed.
10,400 T DEAD MASS IN ORBIT — ESA, 2025
40,500OBJECTS TRACKED TODAY
7.6 KM/SAVERAGE IMPACT SPEED
0ORBITS END ON SCHEDULE
THREE TIMES THE SKY BROKE
- 2007-01-11FY-1C DESTROYED AT 865 KM3,500+ FRAGMENTS
- 2009-02-10IRIDIUM 33 × KOSMOS 2251 — 784 KM2,000+ FRAGMENTS
- 2021-11-15COSMOS 1408 DESTROYED AT 480 KM1,800+ FRAGMENTS
None of those fragments has come down on purpose. That is the entire problem.
A CLAW, A TANK, A THRUSTER, AND A BRAIN THE SIZE OF A PAPERBACK.
FALL-1 is 1.4 metres of deliberate understatement. It has one job: grab the dead, drag it down, and burn up doing it. It was built to be expendable, which is why it costs less than the satellite it removes.
- DRY MASS190 KG
- WET MASS430 KG
- CAPTURE RINGØ 1.4 M — ±2°/S TUMBLE
- PROPELLANTN₂H₄ — 240 KG
- MAIN ENGINE1 × 400 N — ISP 220 S
- RCS4 × 22 N
- POWER2 × 3.2 M² GAAS
ONE BURN.
132 m/s at apogee. Two minutes, seventeen seconds. Everything after this is gravity.
KEEP SCROLLING — THE ORBIT IS ABOUT TO CHANGE
IGNITION.
Four hundred newtons. Nothing dramatic. Just enough.
BURN CLOCK
T+00:00
THRUST 400 N — FIRING
DELTA-V.
The tank loses twenty-six kilograms. The orbit never forgets it.
ΔV USED — TARGET 132 M/S
0
VEL 7.51 KM/S — PROP 240 KG
THE ORBIT.
Apogee holds. Perigee drops. That is the whole trick.
ECCENTRICITY EXAGGERATED ~8× FOR LEGIBILITY — THE NUMBERS ARE REAL
BURN COMPLETE.
The rest is gravity.
T+02:17ΔV 132 M/SPERIGEE 80 KMVEL 7.38 KM/S
SYSTEMS — SILENT. THE REST IS GRAVITY.
THE RECORD.
Everything the mission did, in the order it did it. The tables are the page's memory: nothing here is decoration.
SPECIFICATION — FALL-1
| DRY MASS | 190 KG |
|---|---|
| WET MASS | 430 KG |
| CAPTURE RING | Ø 1.4 M — ±2°/S TUMBLE |
| PROPELLANT | N₂H₄ — 240 KG |
| MAIN ENGINE | 1 × 400 N — ISP 220 S |
| RCS | 4 × 22 N |
| POWER | 2 × 3.2 M² GAAS |
| TARGETS | ≤ 3 T — 400–1200 KM |
| SERVICE LIFE | ONE MISSION — BY DESIGN |
MISSION PROFILE — 2026-05-02
| CAPTURE | T-02:14 | 700 KM | RING CLOSED — REL. VEL 0.04 M/S |
|---|---|---|---|
| BURN | T+00:00 → 02:17 | 700 KM | ΔV 132 M/S — PERIGEE SET TO 80 KM |
| COAST | T+02:17 → 51:29 | 700 → 100 KM | NO COMMANDS SENT. NONE NEEDED. |
| REENTRY | T+51:29 | 100 KM | PLASMA CONTACT — 2,300 °C |
| BREAKUP | T+52:40 | 60 KM | STACK SEPARATES — 1,900 KG → FRAGMENTS |
| IMPACT | T+53:12 | 0 KM | 48.8°S 123.4°W — SOUTH PACIFIC |
THE FRAGMENTS ARE STILL FALLING SOMEWHERE OVER THE SOUTH PACIFIC. BY NOW THEY ARE WEATHER.
For forty-nine minutes, nothing happens.
That is the plan.
T+02:17 — BURN COMPLETE · NEXT EVENT: REENTRY INTERFACE, T+51:29
PEAK PLASMA TEMPERATURE — PLASMA SHEATH, 80 KM
2300°C
THE ATMOSPHERE DOES THE REST.
100 KMREENTRY INTERFACE
80 KMPLASMA SHEATH — 2,300 °C
60 KMBREAKUP
40 KMRAIN
0 KMIMPACT — 48.8°S 123.4°W
SIGNAL: LOST — AS DESIGNED
WE'VE DONE THIS ONCE. NO ONE ELSE HAS DONE IT AT ALL.
If you own a satellite that has stopped answering, it will fall eventually — on its own schedule, into somebody's ocean, or onto something that matters. We fall it on yours: your target, your timeline, our claw.
OPERATIONSLONGYEARBYEN, SVALBARD — 78.22°N 15.63°E
WE WATCH FROM THE PLACE WHERE THE SKY IS A CEILING
IMPACT ARCHIVE48.8°S 123.4°W — SOUTH PACIFIC
2,688 KM FROM THE NEAREST LAND
NEXT MISSIONMISSION 02 — TBD
THE SKY IS A LEDGER. WE ARE THE ERASER.