TBNSpace
Starfish Loses Contact with Otter, Cutting SSPICY Short
Publication: Payload
Author: Douglas Gorman
Source published: 04/11/2026, 13:18:29 UTC
Briefing created: 04/11/2026, 13:50:41 UTC
Based on a feed excerpt; full article content has not been acquired. Source evidence retrieved 04/11/2026, 13:20:25 UTC.
Briefings
Starfish Space lost contact with Otter 24C, ending its $15M SSPICY mission one month after launch. The failure was caused by a faulty Astro Digital bus fault protection system that cut off on-board radio. This is the second on-orbit mishap for Starfish, following a 2023 tumble of its first satellite. Starfish remains committed to completing other SSPICY objectives for NASA.
Key points
- Starfish Space lost contact with Otter 24C, ending a $15M SSPICY mission one month after launch due to a faulty Astro Digital bus fault protection system.
- Starfish's Otter Pup 2 spacecraft successfully demonstrated close-range satellite inspection capabilities, achieving a 33-meter approach to Gilmour Space's ElaraSat.
Context
Starfish Space operates under NASA's SDA contract for deorbiting satellites. The SSPICY mission was a first for NASA in funding commercial debris inspection, though it failed with Otter 24C. Starfish previously failed with its first satellite in 2023, and the current failure is the second on-orbit mishap involving faulty third-party hardware.
Limitations
Evidence is limited to a single mission failure and one successful demonstration. No specific dates for the Astro Digital bus failure are provided, only the date of the spacecraft's launch. The exact cause of the radio blackout is inferred from the fault protection error description, but no technical details are given.
Generated by Bittrees-hosted qwen35-2b sha256:aaf42c8b7c3c on 04/11/2026, 13:50:41 UTC. Based on publisher-provided feed evidence; may not cover the full original article. Check the source for details.
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