Starfish Space, a US startup building satellite-servicing spacecraft, has unveiled a mockup of its Otter vehicle at an event at the Seattle Aquarium. NASA paid $15 million to develop and build the spacecraft, GeekWire reports. Otter-class vehicles are meant to inspect dead satellites and, down the line, tow them to new orbits or push them down into the atmosphere.
The first Otter is tentatively set to launch on October 1 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It will fly on SpaceX’s Transporter-18, a rideshare mission that carries satellites for multiple companies and agencies on a single rocket. NASA’s funding comes through SSPICY (Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability), a program focused on propulsion and inspection technology for small spacecraft.
Starfish Space also works on US military programs alongside its civil contracts. The US military has shown broad interest in servicing satellites in orbit. In June, the US Space Force opened a competition to build storage facilities and depots in orbit.
Otter itself is compact, weighing roughly 300–335 kg (660–740 lb) — about the size of a kitchen oven, not counting its solar panels. Under SSPICY, its job is to approach defunct spacecraft and inspect them in detail. During the mission, it will survey several US-built objects, collecting data on hull condition, external damage and how they move. That information should help determine whether such spacecraft can be repaired, reused or safely removed from orbit.
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Which satellites Otter will visit won’t be known until it reaches orbit and enters service. The company does have a shortlist, but the final targets will be picked later. In the first phase, Otter will only rendezvous with objects and relay data on their condition to its customers, NASA and the military. The mission could run for several years, so Starfish Space is open to taking on new tasks along the way.
Otter’s platform is built around autonomous navigation, rendezvous control and hardware for future satellite servicing. Navigation is handled by CETACEAN, which uses computer vision and a stereo camera to work out where the target is and how fast it is moving relative to the spacecraft. CEPHALOPOD then uses that data to plot safe approach paths and abort options. Otter also carries Manta, a robotic system with multiple degrees of freedom, and Nautilus, a capture mechanism. Nautilus should eventually let the spacecraft dock even with objects that were never designed to be serviced.
Building a single Otter currently takes about 18 months, and at least five more are already in production. Starfish Space has also lined up agreements to inspect — and even deorbit — two retired military satellites, a NASA satellite and two commercial spacecraft in geostationary orbit. Now the company needs to scale up and speed up production. Founded in 2019 by two former employees of Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, the startup now has 120 staff, up from about 90 just a few months ago.
For Starfish Space, the Otter launch is meant to mark the shift from experiments to commercial services in space. Until now, the company has only flown scaled-down Otter Pup prototypes. The first, in 2023, proved out its satellite-tracking systems but failed to dock with its target in orbit. The second is in orbit now, shadowing a satellite set aside for the purpose and helping engineers practice rendezvous maneuvers.
Interest in the Otter mission has grown after NASA’s recent failed attempt to rescue the Swift space observatory. The rescue relied on LINK, a tug that Katalyst Space built in a hurry, but it failed during launch itself. Swift is now set to burn up in the atmosphere within months.
