Tag: Starfish Space
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Starfish Space wins $15M NASA award for a SSPICY mission to visit dead satellites
An artist’s conception shows Starfish Space’s Otter spacecraft in orbit. (Starfish Space Illustration) 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…
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Starfish Space signs contract with Intelsat for satellite servicing beginning in 2026
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…
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Space Force and Starfish Space lay out their roadmap for satellite docking mission
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…
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Starfish tests satellite rendezvous system — and wins a $37.5M Space Force contract
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…
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Three Pacific Northwest space companies win awards from Space Force venture fund
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…
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Starfish Space scrubs plan for a satellite rendezvous after thruster suffers anomaly
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…
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Starfish Space wins NASA contract to plan demonstration of orbital debris inspection
An artist’s conception 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…
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Spin control: Starfish Space makes use of magnetism to stop satellite’s death spiral
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…
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Starfish Space wins $1.8M to keep working on satellite guidance system for Air Force
A stylized illustration shows one satellite closing in to rendezvous with another satellite, with the aid of Starfish Space’s Cephalopod guidance software. (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…
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Spinning spacecraft adds unwelcome twist to Starfish Space’s docking test mission
In this clean-room photo, Starfish Space’s Otter Pup docking spacecraft is attached to the top of Launcher’s 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 Kent, Wash.-based startup’s Otter Pup…