Salvaging and Braking Device for Objects Flying Freely in Space

In a recovery and braking device for objects flying freely in space, particularly for capturing satellites and other orbital objects, (at least one,) preferably a larger number of capturing units (2) are arranged on a spacecraft serving as a steerable carrier vehicle (1), wherein the capturing units are separable from the spacecraft, are equipped with a propellant charge of their own, and comprise a closeable capture net (4) releasably connected via a line (5). The carrier vehicle is equipped with position or attitude controlling engines (6), in order to achieve an orienting of the coupled mass configuration in preparation for the separation. In that regard, several capturing units can be combined into a series or parallel connection. After the oriented deployment/separation, the passive stability of the arrangement is utilized, taking into consideration the system behavior of the flexibly coupled objects, whereby sufficient position or attitude stability and accuracy is ensured even without active position or attitude control.