A Munich student has taken on one of spaceflight's most urgent challenges: clearing Earth's orbit of debris. With his startup he aims to detect and remove the fragments before they threaten satellites and astronauts.
Securing a conversation with Leonidas Askianakis requires foresight. His schedule is carved into 30-minute slots from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. Meetings are online only, and every one of them revolves around space.
Despite the long hours, his calendar is booked weeks ahead. When does he sleep?
The 22-year-old student from the Technical University of Munich in Germany shrugs when confronted with the question during a recent interview with DW, saying that he's "on the home stretch" and just can't "set the project aside."
Even at night, the mission weighs on him, he said, and he often lies awake scrolling through recent reports from a Chinese space mission which has identified more debris and increasing
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