Otter is ready to get to work.
Starfish Space announced today that it will launch its first operational Otter spacecraft to begin conducting commercial missions for customers. The spacecraft is expected to launch next month on SpaceX’s Transporter-18.
“This is the moment Otter becomes real,” Starfish cofounder Austin Link said in a statement. “It’s no longer something we’re designing for the future. The first Otter is built, it has a customer and a mission, and it’s going to space.”
Spice up your life: Otter’s first mission is for NASA. During the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability, aka SSPICY, mission, Otter will approach and inspect multiple US defunct satellites, whose operators have agreed to receive a visit from the spacecraft.
Otter will get within hundreds of meters of the sats to collect info including spin rate, spin axes, and the condition of the satellite’s surface.
NASA awarded Starfish the $15M Phase III SBIR contract for the mission in September 2024.
How we got here: While this may be Otter’s first operational flight, Starfish has experience in orbit from a series of demo missions.
- In December, Starfish and Impulse Space partnered on the Remora demo, in which Starfish added software and a camera to Impulse’s Mira spacecraft to autonomously approach another Mira already in orbit.
- Otter Pup—a smaller sat from Starfish—also proved out Starfish’s docking, guidance, and navigation systems during a 2023 demo.
- Otter Pup 2 followed with a June 2025 demo flight.
What’s next: Starfish, which closed a $100M+ Series B in April, has more customers waiting for their Otters.
- SSC purchased an Otter in 2024 for $37.5M, to conduct national security RPO and docking missions.
- SDA awarded Starfish a $52.5M contract in January to deorbit defunct sats in its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture constellation, beginning NET 2027.
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