Space harpoon skewers 'orbital debris'

The British-led mission to test techniques to clear up space junk has demonstrated a harpoon in orbit. The RemoveDebris satellite fired the projectile into a target board held at a distance on the end of a boom. Video of the event shows the miniature spear fly straight and true, and with such force that it actually breaks the target structure. But, importantly, the harpoon's barbs deploy and hold on to the board, preventing it from floating away. Prof Guglielmo Aglietti, from the University of Surrey in Guildford, is the principal investigator on the mission.