Starfish loses contact with Otter spacecraft, ending NASA inspection mission

Starfish loses contact with Otter spacecraft, ending NASA inspection mission

Starfish loses contact with Otter spacecraft, ending NASA inspection mission

Starfish Space has lost contact with its Otter 24C spacecraft, bringing the $15 million NASA SSPICY mission to a premature end. The oven-sized spacecraft launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 on October 1 and made early contact, but contact was lost during commissioning. An investigation found that an error in the fault protection system on the satellite bus, provided by Astro Digital, kept the radio switched off so communications could not be restored. NASA and Starfish concluded the spacecraft is unrecoverable. The mission was meant to approach and inspect inoperable US satellites in low Earth orbit.

Starfish Space has lost contact with its Otter 24C spacecraft, bringing the $15 million NASA SSPICY mission to a premature end. The oven-sized spacecraft launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 on October 1 and made early contact, but contact was lost during commissioning. An investigation found that an error in the fault protection system on the satellite bus, provided by Astro Digital, kept the radio switched off so communications could not be restored. NASA and Starfish concluded the spacecraft is unrecoverable. The mission was meant to approach and inspect inoperable US satellites in low Earth orbit.

Starfish Space has lost contact with its Otter 24C spacecraft, bringing the $15 million NASA SSPICY mission to a premature end. The oven-sized spacecraft launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 on October 1 and made early contact, but contact was lost during commissioning. An investigation found that an error in the fault protection system on the satellite bus, provided by Astro Digital, kept the radio switched off so communications could not be restored. NASA and Starfish concluded the spacecraft is unrecoverable. The mission was meant to approach and inspect inoperable US satellites in low Earth orbit.