Nobu Okada founded Astroscale in 2013 due to a strong desire to address the growing threat of space debris. He used his personal funds as seed money and hired a team in Singapore in 2013 and opened an R&D office in Japan in 2015, a UK office in 2017, a US office in 2019, and an Israeli office in 2020, whilst raising US $191M capital. The team calls themselves, “Space Sweepers” and their mission is to secure safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations.

Nobu is the International Astronautical Federation’s Vice President for Space Economy and Sponsorship, co-chair of The Future of Space Technologies Council, World Economic Forum, member of the Space Generation Advisory Council Advisory Board, and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He also served as a member of the Subcommittee on Space Civil Use, and Space Industry at the Cabinet Office for Government of Japan. Astroscale was awarded Grand Prix during the UNESCO Netexplo Innovation Forum 2020, Forbes JAPAN” Start-up of The Year 2019” and Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2017.