SpaceX launches Starfish Space's second spacecraft for orbital satellite docking test
An artist's conception shows Otter Pup 2 (at left) approaching its target satellite. (Starfish Space Illustration)
Starfish Space's second Otter Pup spacecraft went into Earth orbit today, marking the first step in what the Seattle-area startup hopes will be a successful demonstration of the vehicle's ability to dock with other satellites.
Otter Pup, which is about the size of a microwave oven, was one of 70 payloads that hitched a ride to space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-14 smallsat rideshare mission. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2:25 p.m. PT.
Minutes after stage separation, SpaceX reported that the rocket's reusable first-stage booster made a successful touchdown on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. Later, SpaceX confirmed that Otter Pup separated successfully from the Falcon 9's upper stage.
'Launch is an exciting milestone for Otter Pup 2, placing the satellite into low Earth orbit so it can work towards its mission: docking with another satellite and validating core Starfish technologies along the way,' Starfish Space, which is headquartered in Tukwila, Wash., said in a post-launch posting to X / Twitter. 'If successful in these goals, Otter Pup 2 will bring us closer to an interactive future in orbit, shifting the paradigm for what humanity can accomplish as we venture out into the universe.'
This mission comes two years after the first Otter Pup, which was launched into space using the same Falcon 9 booster, suffered a string of post-deployment anomalies that ultimately ruled out a docking test. Instead, Starfish conducted limited testing of its satellite rendezvous system.
Since then, Starfish Space and its partners have made significant changes in Otter Pup's software and hardware, including a switch to a different electric propulsion system provided by ThrustMe.
This time around, a D-Orbit ION spacecraft will serve as the target for Otter Pup's proximity and docking operations. After orbital checkout, 'we'll complete what we call a long-range rendezvous, where we go chase down [the ION craft] from hundreds or thousands of kilometers away, down to on the order of 10 kilometers,' Starfish Space co-founder Trevor Bennett told GeekWire last month.
At that point in the mission, Starfish will put Otter Pup through a series of fine-tuning maneuvers, 'ultimately marching from a kilometer to 100 meters, to 10 meters, to zero,' Bennett said.
Otter Pup will make use of its Cetacean navigation software and its Cephalopod guidance and control software to manage the approach and docking. Because D-Orbit's spacecraft hasn't been preconfigured for docking, it will be up to Otter Pup's Nautilus electrostatic capture system to make the connection.
It could take months for Starfish to work its way through the checklist for Otter Pup 2's mission objectives. 'We want to be able to complete all the major milestones, including the docking milestone, by the end of the calendar year,' Bennett said.
Otter Pup is designed to demonstrate the technologies that will be used on Starfish's full-size Otter satellite servicing vehicles. Such vehicles are being built to link up with satellites on a regular basis — to refuel and service them for extended missions, or to push them out of their orbits for safe disposal at the end of their missions.
Starfish has won tens of millions of dollars in contracts to execute Otter satellite docking missions next year for Intelsat, the U.S. Space Force and NASA.
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