A well-traveled SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket today launched dozens of satellites, including an experimental docking craft created by a Seattle-area startup called Starfish Space.
Starfish Space’s Otter Pup spacecraft was one of 72 payloads that were deployed into low Earth orbit after the launch of SpaceX’s Transporter-8 satellite rideshare mission from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Liftoff came at 2:35 p.m. PT, just hours after SpaceX launched 52 Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Minutes after the California launch, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster flew itself back to a landing pad not far from the launch site, marking the ninth successful launch and recovery for that booster. It was the 200th successful recovery of a Falcon 9 booster.
Meanwhile, the rocket’s second stage reached orbit and executed a meticulously choreographed series of deployments that ended nearly an hour and a half after launch. The long list of payloads included small satellites and a re-entry vehicle, as well as an orbital transfer vehicle that carried its own complement of spacecraft.
Starfish Space’s Otter Pup was attached to Orbiter SN3, a space tug provided by Launcher Space. During the months ahead, Otter Pup will separate itself from Orbiter SN3 and conduct a series of maneuvers using a xenon-fueled electric propulsion system. The primary goal is to return to the vicinity of the orbital tug and then use an electrostatic-based capture mechanism to latch onto a docking target.
The experiment is a group effort: The Otter Pup spacecraft was built for Starfish Space by Astro Digital. The propulsion system was provided by Exotrail. Redwire’s Argus camera hardware will be used for relative navigation, with guidance provided by Starfish’s Cetacean computer vision system and its Cephalopod trajectory planning software. Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin subsidiary, supported development of Starfish’s Nautilus capture mechanism.
Starfish Space co-founder Austin Link told GeekWire that the Otter Pup launch “is the beginning of a journey that we’ve now been working toward for most of our company’s existence.”
“It’s going to be a big challenge to successfully dock, but if we end up being successful, we believe the ability to affordably and safely interact with other objects in space opens up a new paradigm for how humans can operate in the universe,” Link said in an email exchange.
It will take months to gauge the Otter Pup’s level of success. “Between commissioning, checkout testing, some long-range rendezvous, and calibration we’re projecting internally that it won’t be until Q4 this year that we get the chance to dock,” Link said.
Otter Pup is meant to blaze a trail for Starfish Space’s full-scale docking craft, known as the Otter. Link said the specifics relating to future missions will depend on the results of the Otter Pup experiment, as well as the outcomes from a series of conversations with potential customers.
“At a high level, the Otter Pup is designed to be a springboard to full Otter missions that provide value to customers through satellite life extension and end-of-life disposal,” he said. “We’re always trying to chart the most efficient paths to a capable and reliable Otter.”
Starfish Space was founded in 2019 by Link and Trevor Bennett, both of whom previously worked as engineers at Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture.
The Tukwila, Wash-based startup has attracted a little more than $21 million in funding from investors including Munich Re Ventures, Toyota Ventures, PSL Ventures, NFX and MaC Venture Capital. It has also received a series of technology development grants from the U.S. Space Force and NASA — including, most recently, a $150,000 NASA grant to support the development of the Nautilus capture system.
Here are a few of the other payloads launched by the Transporter-8 mission:
- Varda Space Industries’ W-1 re-entry capsule, which is designed to process the ingredients for pharmaceuticals in microgravity and deliver them back to Earth. This first experiment will focus on research relating to ritonavir, a drug that has been used to treat HIV and is also included in Paxlovid, a drug combination that targets COVID-19. Future missions will provide hypersonic flight test data for the U.S. Air Force.
- The first four Blackjack Aces satellites for a DARPA constellation that will demonstrate the use of optical satellite links and on-orbit data processing for autonomous operations.
- A dozen SpaceBEE picosatellites that will become part of an Internet of Things constellation operated by Swarm, a SpaceX subsidiary.
- SpeiSat, a football-sized satellite provided by the Vatican and the Italian Space Agency. The satellite carries a “nanobook” with prayers from Pope Francis, plus a ham-radio rig that will broadcast papal messages of hope and peace.
