NASA-backed Starfish Otter satellite lost: radio stuck off after launch

A NASA-supported satellite built to inspect space junk has gone silent for good. In a NASA blog post on November 3, the agency said Starfish Space's Otter spacecraft — flying the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) technology demonstration — cannot be recovered.

What went wrong

SSPICY launched on October 1. Starfish made initial contact with Otter, but lost it during commissioning, the early phase when a spacecraft switches on its systems and calibrates instruments. Since then, two-way communication has not been re-established.

Joint analysis by NASA and Starfish traced the problem to the spacecraft's fault protection system — the onboard software that detects and responds to problems. According to NASA, it is keeping Otter's radio "erroneously turned off".

What the mission was supposed to do

Otter was designed to navigate toward and inspect inoperable US-origin objects in low Earth orbit, testing advanced propulsion, guidance, navigation and control, plus an articulating robotic boom. It was the first launch of Starfish's Otter and the first time the company's navigation and propulsion technologies were combined in one spacecraft.

NASA framed the loss as part of the risk of fast technology demos. Starfish intends to keep gathering performance and orbital-debris inspection data for NASA on future Otter missions. For more space news, see our Science & Space section.