After seven years, a spacecraft company is releasing its Otters into the wild

Key Points:

• Starfish Space, founded in October 2019 by engineers Trevor Bennett and Austin Link after their time at Blue Origin, aims to address the challenges of managing increasing satellite constellations and extending satellite lifespans in low-Earth orbit.
• The company's spacecraft, Otter, about the size of a large washing machine and weighing approximately 350 kg, is set for its first space mission this fall on a Falcon 9 Transporter, funded by NASA with $15 million for a commercial debris inspection mission called SSPICY.
• Otter will inspect multiple defunct US-owned satellites by approaching within hundreds of meters to gather data on their conditions, marking NASA's first commercial debris inspection mission.
• Starfish Space has kept a lean team of around 120 employees and raised about $150 million, focusing on software and maneuvering technologies while procuring spacecraft buses from Astro Digital.
• After initial demo missions with mixed results, including a premature ejection and thruster failure, Starfish has achieved closer proximity rendezvous and autonomous docking demonstrations, with five more Otter spacecraft in production for future missions showcasing docking, de-orbit, and life extension capabilities.