Airbus is testing a big harpoon to snare rogue or redundant satellites and pull them out of the sky.
The 1.5m-long projectile would be attached, through a strong tether, to a chase spacecraft.
Once the target was captured and under control, the chase vehicle would then drag its prey down into the atmosphere to burn to destruction.
Airbus has been working on the concept for a number of years now, developing ever bigger systems.
It is a response to the growing problem of orbital junk – old pieces of hardware that continue to circle the globe and which now pose a collision threat to operational satellites.
For more information visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43418047