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Starfish Space signs a deal to service an Intelsat satellite

Illustration: Starfish's Otter spacecraft in space
An artist’s conception shows Starfish’s Otter satellite servicing spacecraft. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space has signed a contract with Intelsat to provide on-orbit life extension services to a geostationary satellite beginning in 2026.

It’s the first commercial contract for Starfish’s Otter satellite servicing spacecraft, which is currently under development. The deal follows up on Starfish’s $37.5 million contract with the U.S. Space Force for a satellite docking demonstration.

“Starfish Space is delighted to be supporting Intelsat with services provided by Otter,” Starfish Space co-founder Trevor Bennett said today in a news release. “They are an incredible team at the forefront of the industry, and the Otter will help them deliver even more to their customers. We’re also excited that this will be the first of many Otters that will make on-orbit servicing a standard part of satellite operations.”

Jean-Luc Froeliger, Intelsat’s senior vice president of space systems, said the Otter contract serves as a “perfect example” of Intelsat’s commitment to innovation and new technologies. “We look forward to utilizing the services provided by their Otter satellite to maximize the value the world’s largest geostationary satellite fleet can deliver for our customers,” Froeliger said.

Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed, and Intelsat isn’t saying exactly which satellite will be serviced.

The plan calls for Otter to begin by docking with and maneuvering a retired Intelsat satellite in geostationary graveyard orbit. Then Otter would move on to dock with an operational Intelsat satellite. Otter would use its onboard propulsion system to keep that satellite in an operational orbit for additional years of life.

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Starfish and Space Force lay out satellite docking plan

Illustration: Otter spacecraft in high Earth orbit
An artist’s conception shows the Otter spacecraft in geostationary Earth orbit. (Starfish Space Illustration)

The U.S. Space Force says a Pentagon partnership with Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space will result in a “first-of-its-kind docking mission” aimed at adding to the maneuverability of national security assets on orbit.

Starfish Space’s $37.5 million contract for a demonstration of the startup’s Otter satellite docking spacecraft was awarded two weeks ago, but the Space Force’s Space Systems Command released further details about the project today.

The Space Systems Command said its Assured Access to Space program will be working in partnership with Starfish Space as well as the Air Force Research Laboratory’s SpaceWERX program, Space Safari and the SSC Commercial Space Office to improve the responsiveness, resilience and strategic flexibility of U.S. space assets.

“This project is another step forward in delivering what our warfighters require in sustained space maneuver,” said Col. Joyce Bulson, director of servicing, mobility and logistics in the Assured Access to Space program.

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Starfish tests its first satellite and wins millions for more

Illustration: Otter Pup satellite in space
An artist’s conception shows the Otter Pup satellite. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Months after Starfish Space said it was giving up on its plan to test its satellite docking system in orbit, due to a thruster failure, the Tukwila, Wash.-based startup managed to coax one last rendezvous out of its first space mission.

And this week brought more good news for Starfish Space, in the form of a $37.5 million contract from the U.S. Space Force for further work on its in-space rendezvous and docking technology.

Last month’s close encounter involving Starfish’s Otter Pup spacecraft and D-Orbit’s ION SCV006 satellite wasn’t as close as the original test plan called for, and it was up to ION to do all of the orbital maneuvering. Nevertheless, Starfish Space co-founder Trevor Bennett said the exercise brought Otter Pup’s mission to a successful close.

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Space Force’s venture fund boosts space startups

Illustration: Gravitics space station module in orbit
An artist’s conception shows Gravitics’ space module in orbit. (Gravitics Illustration)

SpaceWERX, which essentially serves as a venture fund for the U.S. Space Force, has awarded contracts worth as much as $1.7 million each to 18 companies — including three startups headquartered in the Seattle area.

The Washington state awardees are Marysville-based Gravitics, which is working on next-generation space station modules; Bothell-based Portal Space Systems, which is focusing on systems for in-space mobility and orbital debris removal; and Tukwila-based Starfish Space, which is developing spacecraft and software for on-orbit satellite servicing.

The awards were made through the 2023 SpaceWERX Tactically Responsive Space Challenge, conducted in partnership with Space Safari. The challenge is meant to support cutting-edge concepts that could enable the Space Force to respond more rapidly and flexibly to emerging on-orbit threats by 2026.

In a LinkedIn posting, SpaceWERX said 302 proposals were submitted in response to a solicitation issued in August. The winners will be fast-tracked into Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contracts, each of which calls for up to $1.7 million to be paid out over the course of a 15-month period of performance.

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Starfish Space scrubs plan for satellite rendezvous

Illustration: Otter Pup spacecraft in orbit
An artist’s conception shows Starfish Space’s Otter Pup spacecraft in orbit. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Five months after a tilt-a-whirl spin spoiled the debut of Starfish Space’s first spacecraft, the Tukwila, Wash.- based startup has halted efforts to put its Otter Pup back on track to demonstrate an on-orbit satellite rendezvous.

Starfish had to abandon its plan to regroup and attempt a rendezvous when the Otter Pup satellite’s electric propulsion thruster suffered an anomaly and could no longer function. “We determined that we just pushed it a little bit too far,” Starfish co-founder Austin Link told me.

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Starfish Space will look into a plan to inspect space junk

Illustration: Otter spacecraft in orbit
Artwork shows the Otter inspection spacecraft silhouetted against Earth as it closes in on a target satellite. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Even as Starfish Space works to get its first orbital demonstration mission back on track, the Tukwila, Wash.-based startup has won a contract from NASA to look into an even more ambitious project to inspect orbital debris up close.

The newly announced study contract follows up on earlier work that Starfish has done to prove out features of its system for making a rendezvous with other spacecraft in orbit — and either servicing them or guiding them to their demise.

Some of those features — including Starfish’s Cetacean relative navigation software and its Cephalopod autonomous guidance software — could be tested sometime in the next few months on the company’s Otter Pup prototype spacecraft, which was sent into orbit in June but was forced into an unfortunate spin during deployment. Starfish stabilized the spin in August and is currently making sure that all of Otter Pup’s systems are in working order for future tests.

NASA’s follow-up contract, awarded through the space agency’s Small Business Innovation Research program, or SBIR, calls for Starfish Space to assess the feasibility of using its full-scale Otter satellite servicing vehicle to rendezvous with large pieces of space debris and inspect them.

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Starfish Space uses magnetism to rescue satellite

Illustration: Starfish Space's Otter Pup satellite in orbit
An artist’s conception shows Starfish Space’s Otter Pup satellite docking craft. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Two and a half months after Starfish Space’s first orbital mission teetered on the edge of failure because its Otter Pup satellite docking system took a wild tumble, the Kent, Wash.-based startup says that it has stopped the spin and is moving ahead with preparations to rendezvous with another satellite.

Mission controllers still have to make sure that Otter Pup is in working order, and they still have to identify a satellite they can link up with. But Starfish co-founder Austin Link said the team has gotten over the highest hurdle: “de-tumbling” a spacecraft that had been rotating at a rate of roughly one revolution per second.

“This is the first time that we as a company have gone and done something really unique and really extraordinary in space,” Link told me. “It wasn’t the thing that we set out to do with this mission. We still have that ahead of us. But to do that is, to me, another proof point for how excited I am to get to work with all the incredible folks we have at Starfish.”

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Starfish Space wins $1.8M for satellite software

Illustration: Cephalopod guidance software at work
An illustration shows one satellite closing in to rendezvous with another satellite. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Kent, Wash.-based Starfish Space says it’s been awarded $1.8 million by AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force, to support continued development of the company’s Cephalopod software for satellite guidance, navigation and control.

The award builds on previous collaborations between Starfish and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Technically speaking, the contract is known as a Tactical Funding Increase, or TACFI. Ari Juster, strategy and operations lead at Starfish, said it was awarded as a follow-up to a $1.7 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract that the startup received in 2021. In a news release, Starfish co-founder Austin Link said he was “excited to continue our collaboration with AFRL.”

“Cephalopod can serve as a key technology enabling future servicing missions to benefit satellite operators, and we have found the AFRL team to be great partners in supporting its development,” Link said.

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Starfish’s docking spacecraft goes into a ill-starred spin

Clean-room view of Orbiter SN3 and Otter Pup
In this clean-room photo, the Otter Pup spacecraft is attached to the top of the Orbiter SN3 space tug. (Launcher / Starfish Space Photo)

Starfish Space’s ambitious mission to test its on-orbit satellite docking system has taken an unfortunate turn — or, more precisely, an unfortunate spin.

The Tukwila, Wash.-based startup’s Otter Pup spacecraft was one of 72 payloads sent into low Earth orbit on June 12 by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket for Transporter-8, a dedicated rideshare mission. Otter Pup and several other spacecraft were attached to Launcher’s Orbiter SN3, a space tug that’s designed to release piggyback payloads at different times.

Soon after Orbiter SN3 separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage, it experienced an anomaly that set it spinning at a rate on the order of one revolution per second, far outside the bounds of normal operating conditions.

By the time Launcher’s team made contact with Orbiter, fuel and power levels were critically low — and the team made an emergency decision to deploy Otter Pup immediately. In a joint statement issued today, Launcher and Starfish Space said that quick action “gave the Otter Pup mission a chance to continue.”

With assistance from Astro Digital and ground station partners, Starfish’s team contacted Otter Pup and determined that it was generating power — but was also spinning because of the circumstances of its emergency deployment.

Starfish co-founder Austin Link told me that the spacecraft, which is about the size of a dorm-room fridge, has drifted several kilometers away from its Orbiter mothership. “They’re still in the same orbital neighborhood,” he said.

Starfish’s mission plan called for Otter Pup to execute a series of maneuvers leading up to a rendezvous and docking with Orbiter. Such maneuvers would demonstrate that Starfish’s guidance and navigation system, electric propulsion system and electrostatic capture system all work in orbit as designed. But Link said the maneuvers can’t be done unless the spinning can be stabilized.

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Starfish Space’s docking spacecraft gets a big sendoff

SpaceX launch from California
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from California, sending 72 payloads into space. (SpaceX via YouTube)

A well-traveled SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket today launched dozens of satellites, including an experimental docking craft created by a Seattle-area startup called Starfish Space.

Starfish Space’s Otter Pup spacecraft was one of 72 payloads that were deployed into low Earth orbit after the launch of SpaceX’s Transporter-8 satellite rideshare mission from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Liftoff came at 2:35 p.m. PT, just hours after SpaceX launched 52 Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Minutes after the California launch, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster flew itself back to a landing pad not far from the launch site, marking the ninth successful launch and recovery for that booster. It was the 200th successful recovery of a Falcon 9 booster.

Meanwhile, the rocket’s second stage reached orbit and executed a meticulously choreographed series of deployments that ended nearly an hour and a half after launch. The long list of payloads included small satellites and a re-entry vehicle, as well as an orbital transfer vehicle that carried its own complement of spacecraft.

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