Rendering of an Otter Pup approaching in a docking mission. Photo: Starfish Space

Starfish Space will again attempt a mission to dock with a spacecraft in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) in ‘Otter Pup 2,’ set to launch this summer. 

Starfish Space launched its first Otter Pup spacecraft in 2023, but the satellite went spinning in space after the space tug carrying it fell into an uncontrollable rotation after launch. The Starfish team was later able to stabilize the spacecraft and Otter Pup performed a rendezvous fly-by with a D-Orbit’s ION satellite.

This time, Otter Pup will conduct rendezvous, proximity operations, and attempt docking with an unprepared D-Orbit ION satellite LEO. The company noted that if the mission is successful, it will be the first commercial satellite docking in LEO.

“If successful, this mission will further validate our unique approach to satellite servicing: taking complex problems that were traditionally solved with hardware and instead solving them with software,” said Trevor Bennett, co-founder at Starfish Space. “This allows us to make Otters an order of magnitude smaller than other servicing vehicles — making them faster to build, faster to launch, and finally closing the business case for satellite servicing to scale across the space industry.”

The mission is set to launch on the Transporter-14 rideshare mission and test the company’s technologies in orbit ahead of planned missions for Intelsat, the U.S. Space Force, and NASA in 2026.

Otter Pup’s satellite bus was manufactured and integrated by Astro Digital, and the vehicle is equipped with electric propulsion thrusters from ThrustMe and the Argus camera system from Redwire. In addition, Honeybee Robotics contributed components that are part of Starfish’s Nautilus capture mechanism.