NASA-Backed Starfish Space Mission Loses Contact With Otter Spacecraft

Starfish Space's NASA-backed satellite inspection mission has suffered a communications loss that cannot be recovered, according to a NASA mission status update.

The Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (Sspicy) mission was contracted under NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to demonstrate propulsion, navigation and inspection technologies for inspecting inoperable space objects in low Earth orbit.

Starfish's Otter spacecraft launched Oct. 1 from Vandenberg Space Force Base under a $15 million NASA SBIR Phase III agreement. The Tukwila, Washington-based company's spacecraft was in the commissioning phase to prepare for 2027 operations when it experienced the communications loss.

Troubleshooting by NASA and Starfish determined the loss, which prevented re-establishing a two-way link, was due to an issue with the spacecraft's fault protection system provided by Astro Digital.

Sspicy is described in the update as the initial launch and deployment of a Starfish Otter spacecraft and the first integration of the company's navigation and propulsion technologies in a single spacecraft. The two-year mission's objectives were to accelerate technologies for in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing while providing NASA data on the characteristics of orbital debris objects.

The Starfish technologies integrated into the spacecraft bus—developed by Starfish Space, for the Sspicy mission—included:

• Manta, an articulating robot arm for thruster pointing.
• Nautilus, a docking mechanism that enables docking with other spacecraft, including those not designed for docking.
• Cetacean, a navigation software package that uses computer vision and sensors, including an imager that features a stereoscopic camera system.
• Cephalopod, autonomous guidance and control software that uses Cetacean data to evaluate abort and approach decisions for the Otter spacecraft as it nears orbital objects of interest.

During future Starfish Otter missions, the company intends to continue gathering information for NASA on the performance of the technologies, along with orbital debris inspection data in low Earth orbit, NASA stated as part of the update.

“Commercial capabilities like Starfish's are critical for a competitive U.S. space economy and strong American leadership in low Earth orbit,” said Greg Stover, director of NASA's Advanced Research and Technology Division. “Technology demonstrations allow us to quickly test new systems, learn from their performance, and iterate so that we are pushing the boundaries of what's possible with every mission.

"NASA will continue taking on bold challenges in close collaboration with our industry partners," Stover said.