Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space and two other companies have secured contracts from the National Reconnaissance Office to explore cutting-edge technologies for space missions.
The focus of Starfish’s collaboration with the NRO will be the potential applications of the startup’s Otter spacecraft, engineered to inspect and integrate with other satellites in orbit, facilitating either servicing or safe disposal operations.
“This partnership offers a significant opportunity to evaluate how Otter can bolster our national space-based intelligence capabilities,” Starfish Space stated in a post on X / Twitter.
The agreements were granted according to the guidelines established by the NRO’s Office of Space Launch for a project known as Broad Agency Announcements for Agile Launch Innovation and Strategic Technology Advancement, or BALISTA. Eric Zarybnisky, leading the Office of Space Launch, mentioned in a statement that BALISTA will aid the NRO to “progress emerging technologies in launch, on-orbit support, and command and control.”
The additional BALISTA contracts were awarded to Texas-based Cognitive Space, which is developing automated satellite operation management tools utilizing artificial intelligence, and California-based Impulse Space, which is focusing on in-space transportation services for satellites. Impulse Space was founded by Tom Mueller, a former key hire at SpaceX. The contract values remain undisclosed.
Starfish was established in 2019 by Trevor Bennett and Austin Link, who both have a background with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space endeavor. The company trialed a scaled prototype of Otter, branded as Otter Pup, during an orbital demonstration mission launched last year that persisted for several months amid challenging conditions.
This year, Starfish secured a $37.5 million arrangement with the U.S. Space Force to carry out a groundbreaking mission, involving the full-scale Otter docking and maneuvering national security assets in geostationary Earth orbit.
Additionally, Starfish has entered into a contract with Intelsat for on-orbit life extension services for a geostationary satellite starting in 2026, and is overseeing a $15 million NASA mission aimed at inspecting several U.S.-owned, defunct satellites in orbit, beginning in 2027.