Starfish Space completes Otter for NASA electric propulsion mission

(SpaceEnergy) Starfish Space has completed its first Otter satellite-servicing spacecraft and scheduled it to launch no earlier than October on NASA's Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability mission.

The spacecraft is due to fly on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission. After launch, Starfish will commission Otter before beginning the NASA mission and preparing the vehicle for commercial services in low Earth orbit.

The development marks a hardware and launch-readiness milestone for SSPICY, a Phase III Small Business Innovation Research programme funded and managed by NASA's Small Spacecraft and Distributed Systems organisation at Ames Research Center.

Otter is designed for satellite life-extension and end-of-life disposal missions and can operate in multiple orbital regimes, including with spacecraft that were not originally designed for servicing.

“This is the moment Otter becomes real,” Starfish co-founder Austin Link said. “The first Otter is built, it has a customer and a mission, and it’s going to space.”

Starfish said it is developing future Otter missions for customers including NASA, the US Space Force, Space Development Agency and SES.