海星太空押注卫星服务能成为一门真正的生意

做的是什么生意

Starfish Space, founded in 2019 and based in Tukwila, Washington, builds Otter, an autonomous satellite-servicing vehicle that docks with client satellites to extend their lives in geostationary orbit or push them to disposal in low Earth orbit.

启动资金：Over $150M in venture funding as of April 2026, including the over-$100M Series B led by Point72 Ventures with Activate Capital and Shield Capital co-leading (Starfish Space press release, 2026-04-07).

起因

Trevor Bennett and Austin Link founded Starfish in 2019, after stints at Blue Origin, on the observation that satellites are built to be disposable: with no affordable servicing, every satellite must be fully self-sufficient. Their answer was Otter, a tug small enough to be affordable — if docking could be made to work on satellites never prepared for it.

经过

Otter Pup 1 launched in 2023 and rendezvoused with D-Orbit's ION spacecraft in April 2024. Starfish announced Otter Pup 2 in May 2025 to attempt the first docking with an unprepared commercial satellite in low Earth orbit, with D-Orbit's ION as the original target; the D-Orbit docking was later cancelled for undisclosed reasons. After months in orbit, Starfish signed up Australia's Gilmour Space and its ElaraSat satellite as the new partner in May 2026 and began closing the gap for a docking attempt.

结果

The technical prize is still open: as of late May 2026 Otter Pup 2 was maneuvering toward ElaraSat with a docking attempt planned in the coming months, and no first commercial low-Earth-orbit docking had been reported. The commercial side has closed: Otter missions are under contract with Intelsat, NASA, the U.S. Space Force, SDA and SES, and Starfish said its first full Otter missions would fly later in 2026.

可借鉴之处

在首次对接被证明之前，海星太空就向国防和商业客户出售了延寿和弃轨任务——现在赌注押在一次在轨演示上。