Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space has won a three-year, $15 million contract from NASA for a mission aimed at doing up-close inspections of defunct satellites in orbit.
Such inspections, to be carried out using Starfish’s Otter spacecraft starting in 2027, could blaze a trail for even more ambitious missions involving the repair or removal of such satellites.
The mission is known as SSPICY, an acronym that stands for Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability. NASA awarded the Phase III Small Business Innovation Research contract after a study that provided Starfish and three other small businesses with funds to develop mission concepts. (The other three companies were Kayhan Space, Turion Space and Vast Space.)
Taking care of orbital debris is a key component of NASA’s Space Sustainability Strategy. Orbital debris mitigation and satellite servicing are also key parts of the business model for Starfish, a five-year-old startup that was founded by two veterans of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, Trevor Bennett and Austin Link.
“We are excited to expand our partnership with NASA, building on our shared commitment to advancing in-space manufacturing and assembly capabilities,” Bennett said today in a news release. “It’s an honor for Starfish to lead the first commercial debris inspection mission funded by NASA. We look forward to collaborating on this and future satellite servicing missions to enable a new paradigm for humanity in space.”
