Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space has been awarded a $54.5 million contract to produce another Otter satellite servicing spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command.
The deal, announced this week, builds on a $37.5 million Space Systems Command contract that was awarded in 2024 through the Department of the Air Force’s Strategic Funding Increase program, or STRATFI. This new contract is funded through a Pentagon program called Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies, or APFIT.
Starfish noted that the award is the only APFIT contract issued to a space company in the current cycle and ranks among the largest in the program’s history.
Austin Link, co-founder of Starfish Space, said his company was “proud to grow our partnership with the Space Force under the APFIT program.”
“APFIT is a key program in transitioning platforms like Otter from development to deployed capability,” Link said today in a news release. “Through dynamic space operations and autonomous augmented maneuver, we enable the Space Force to sustain critical space assets, increase resilience and maintain operational flexibility across evolving mission demands.”
Like the earlier contract, the new one calls on Starfish to provide an Otter spacecraft for dynamic space operations in geosynchronous Earth orbit. Delivery is scheduled for 2028, with an option for two years of operational support.
Designed for autonomous inspection and docking, the Otter will be capable of servicing satellites even if they weren’t originally built for on-orbit adjustments. Otter would be able to move satellites into higher orbits to extend their lives, or nudge them into lower orbits for safe disposal. Just last month, Starfish secured a separate $52.5 million contract from the Space Force’s Space Development Agency for military satellite disposal.
A prototype called Otter Pup 2 was launched last year and has been undergoing orbital tests. Three full-scale Otters are currently being readied for launch — one for the Space Systems Command, one for a satellite maneuvering demonstration funded by the SES satellite company, and one for a NASA-funded satellite inspection mission.
Starfish Space was founded in 2019 by Link and Trevor Bennett, both former engineers at Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture. In 2024, Starfish reported raising $29 million in an investment round that enabled the company to complete the development of the first three Otters. At the time, Starfish said its total cumulative funding amounted to about $50 million.
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