Starfish Space plant Satellite service mission

Rendezvous with a satellite: The US space company Starfish Space says it is preparing for its second satellite service mission. The Otter Pup 2 spacecraft is to dock with a satellite in a low earth orbit (LEO).

Otter Pup 2 is expected to be launched next month on board a Falcon 9 from the US space company SpaceX from the US Air Force base in Vandenberg, California. The aim of the mission is to approach and eventually dock with a spacecraft in LEO, although it is not designed for such a maneuver, Starfish Space announced.

“If successful, it will be the first commercial satellite docking in LEO,” explained the space company. Such docking maneuvers have been performed before, but in a geostationary orbit, i.e., much higher up.

Starfish Space wants to extend satellite missions

The aim of such maneuvers is to maintain satellites in orbit or to refuel them when they run out of fuel. This is intended to extend the mission duration of the satellites. Alternatively, a spacecraft such as Otter Pup can also remove a satellite from its old orbit at the end of its mission.

The difficulty with such service missions is that many satellites are not designed for maintenance work in space. Otter Pup 2 is therefore intended to dock with a spacecraft that is not prepared for a docking maneuver. The target is an ION spacecraft from the Italian company D-Orbit, which will fly into space together with Otter Pup 2 on board the Falcon 9.

This is the second attempt by the company, which was founded in 2019: The Otter Pup 1 mission was launched in June 2023, also on board a SpaceX rocket. A space tug (“space tug”) was then to deploy the spacecraft.

However, the tug released Otter Pup too early, meaning that a planned rendezvous with the space tug could not be carried out. Otter Pup was only able to carry out an approach manoeuvre to another spacecraft and photograph it from a distance of around one kilometer.

(wpl)