{"id":17482,"date":"2021-09-28T19:42:15","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T11:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/founded-by-blue-origin-veterans-starfish-space-raises-7m-for-satellite-servicing-tug\/"},"modified":"2021-09-28T19:42:15","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T11:42:15","slug":"founded-by-blue-origin-veterans-starfish-space-raises-7m-for-satellite-servicing-tug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/founded-by-blue-origin-veterans-starfish-space-raises-7m-for-satellite-servicing-tug\/","title":{"rendered":"Founded by Blue Origin veterans, Starfish Space raises $7M for satellite servicing tug"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Otter
As shown in this artist\u2019s conception, Starfish Space\u2019s Otter space tug is designed to hook up with larger objects in orbit, either for servicing or for safe disposal. (Starfish Space Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kent, Wash.-based Starfish Space says it\u2019s raised $7 million to boost its drive to develop a space tug capable of moving objects into different orbits \u2014 or sending them down through the atmosphere for safe disposal.<\/p>\n

The seed funding round was co-led by NFX and MaC Venture Capital, with participation from PSL Ventures, Boost VC, Liquid2 Ventures and Hypothesis.<\/p>\n

Starfish Space was founded in 2019 by Austin Link and Trevor Bennett, two veterans of Jeff Bezos\u2019 Kent-based Blue Origin space venture. The company\u2019s senior roboticist, Ian Heidenberger, also came to the venture from Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

\"Starfish<\/p>\n

The centerpiece of Starfish\u2019s business plan is the Otter space tug, a small satellite that would be capable of capturing and moving other objects in orbit. Such a capability could address two of the emerging challenges in the satellite industry: extending the operating life of large, expensive geostationary spacecraft; and disposing of obsolete spacecraft and other space debris.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs space becomes more crowded and more regulated, we see a massive need for companies like Starfish to provide satellite services and deorbiting,\u201d Adrian Fenty, managing general partner at MaC Venture Capital, said today in a news release.<\/p>\n

Other companies, including Northrop Grumman, are further along in tests of satellite servicing spacecraft, but Fenty said \u201cwe believe the team at Starfish and their Otter space tug will be able to do this better than anyone else in the market, thanks to their novel technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to hardware development for the Otter, Starfish has been working on a software package for performing rendezvous, proximity operations and docking. The software, known as Cephalopod, is currently undergoing on-orbit testing in connection with the thruster system on Orbit Fab\u2019s Tanker-001 Tenzing prototype refueling satellite.<\/p>\n

Last month, Starfish was one of 19 winners of Phase II SBIR contracts at a virtual Space Force Pitch Day. Starfish\u2019s $1.7 million contract will go toward advancing the Cephalopod software development effort.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the fresh infusion of $7 million in private investment will go toward doubling Starfish\u2019s team of eight full-time employees and accelerating the development of technologies for the Otter space tug. The company said it will focus on increasing confidence in operations around a client spacecraft, which it sees as a critical step toward building an off-world economy.<\/p>\n

Starfish acknowledges that it\u2019ll have to raise more funds to get Otter off the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Starfish Space, we\u2019re trying to change the way humans interact with the universe around us,\u201d Link said. \u201cThere\u2019s still a lot to do, but we\u2019re now in a position to build on our early successes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As shown in this artist\u2019s conception, Starfish Space\u2019s Otter space tug is designed to hook up with larger objects in orbit, either for servicing or for safe disposal. (Starfish Space Illustration) Kent, Wash.-based Starfish Space says it\u2019s raised $7 million to boost its drive to develop a space tug capable of moving objects into different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20,442,4180,4344],"class_list":["post-17482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-space-junk","tag-starfish-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}