After seven years, a spacecraft company is releasing its Otters into the wild
After seven years, a spacecraft company is releasing its Otters into the wild
七年磨一剑：一家航天公司即将把它的“水獭”送入太空
Imagine starting a space company in October 2019 with the aim of changing the world. Then, a few months later, a global pandemic shuts the world down. “Little did we know what the world had in store for us,” said Trevor Bennett, an engineer who co-founded Starfish Space after a few years at Blue Origin. “But that’s kind of become part of our story, showing some resilience along the way.”
想象一下，你在 2019 年 10 月创办了一家旨在改变世界的航天公司。然而几个月后，一场全球疫情让世界陷入停滞。“我们当时根本不知道世界会给我们带来什么，”曾在蓝色起源（Blue Origin）工作多年、后联合创立 Starfish Space 的工程师特雷弗·贝内特（Trevor Bennett）说道，“但这已经成为我们故事的一部分，展现了我们一路走来的韧性。”
At Blue Origin, he saw, up close, the ambitions of billionaires to build big rockets and put massive numbers of satellites into orbit. Bennett and his co-founder, another engineer from Blue Origin named Austin Link, began to think about the implications. How would humanity deal with that increased volume of satellites in orbit? Could low-Earth orbit be preserved? Ideas like asteroid mining or building infrastructure on the Moon seemed a little too far out at the time, but improving the ability to move around in space, deorbiting threats, and extending the life of assets there seemed more plausible.
在蓝色起源工作期间，他近距离观察到了亿万富翁们建造大型火箭并将海量卫星送入轨道的雄心。贝内特和他的联合创始人——另一位来自蓝色起源的工程师奥斯汀·林克（Austin Link）——开始思考其带来的影响。人类将如何应对轨道上日益增加的卫星数量？近地轨道还能得到保护吗？当时，小行星采矿或在月球上建设基础设施等想法似乎还过于遥远，但提高在太空中的机动能力、消除轨道威胁以及延长在轨资产的寿命，看起来则更为可行。
An obvious business case was extending the life of large satellites in geostationary orbit, but just as important, Bennet and Link felt like managing these ever-growing constellations in low-Earth orbit would become vital. “So we had two business cases that we thought were meaningful,” Bennett said. “What we needed was a vehicle to go match that, and that was Otter.”
一个显而易见的商业案例是延长地球静止轨道上大型卫星的寿命，但同样重要的是，贝内特和林克认为，管理近地轨道上不断增长的卫星星座将变得至关重要。“因此，我们有了两个认为很有意义的商业案例，”贝内特说，“我们需要一种能够匹配这些需求的航天器，那就是‘水獭’（Otter）。”
Otter, at last
“水獭”终将启航
Seven years after Starfish’s founding, the first Otter will finally go to space this fall. With a spacecraft bus about the size of a large washing machine and a mass of approximately 350 kg, an Otter will fly on a Falcon 9 Transporter mission next month. This will largely be a demonstration mission for NASA. Named SSPICY—for Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability—the mission will see Otter fly up to multiple older spacecraft and get close to them. Otter will inspect multiple US-owned, defunct satellites, approaching within hundreds of meters to gather information about spin rates, current conditions, and more. This is the first time NASA has funded a commercial debris inspection mission, and the agency is paying Starfish $15 million.
在 Starfish 成立七年后，首台“水獭”终于要在今年秋天进入太空。这台航天器平台大小约相当于一台大型洗衣机，质量约为 350 公斤，将于下个月搭乘猎鹰 9 号（Falcon 9）的“运输者”（Transporter）任务升空。这在很大程度上是一次为 NASA 执行的演示任务。该任务被命名为 SSPICY（意为“小型航天器推进与检测能力”），届时“水獭”将飞向多颗老旧航天器并靠近它们。它将对多颗美国拥有的报废卫星进行检查，在数百米范围内收集有关自旋速率、当前状况等信息。这是 NASA 首次资助商业碎片检查任务，该机构为此向 Starfish 支付了 1500 万美元。
“All of these will be inspections to start,” Bennett said of the SSPICY mission. “But then there will be an opportunity for us to use the remaining life of Otter to do something more.”
“这些任务最初都将是检查工作，”贝内特在谈到 SSPICY 任务时说，“但之后我们将有机会利用‘水獭’剩余的寿命去做更多事情。”
Over Starfish Space’s seven years of existence, Bennett and Link have kept the company fairly small. It has about 120 employees and has raised about $150 million to date. It has chosen to procure its spacecraft bus from Astro Digital and focus on developing software and maneuvering technologies to enable precise rendezvous and docking and the ability to maintain a long life on orbit to service multiple vehicles.
在 Starfish Space 成立的七年里，贝内特和林克一直保持着公司规模的精简。目前公司约有 120 名员工，迄今已筹集约 1.5 亿美元资金。他们选择从 Astro Digital 采购航天器平台，并将重心放在开发软件和机动技术上，以实现精确的交会对接，并具备在轨长期运行以服务多台航天器的能力。
A long and winding road
漫长而曲折的道路
There have been several demonstrations over the years. The first mission, Otter Pup 1, launched in 2023. But the external orbital transfer vehicle suffered a failure, and it ejected the Otter Pup 1 spacecraft prematurely at a spin rate of 330 degrees per second. Over a few weeks, the Starfish team recovered the spacecraft, but one of its thrusters eventually failed. It has had more success with two later demo missions, including Otter Pup 2, which launched in 2025 and has been flying in close proximity to a target spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. It has gotten to within 1 km so far, and if all goes well, a docking will occur in the coming months.
多年来，公司已经进行了几次演示。第一次任务“水獭幼崽 1 号”（Otter Pup 1）于 2023 年发射。但外部轨道转移飞行器发生了故障，导致“水獭幼崽 1 号”过早弹出，且自旋速率高达每秒 330 度。经过几周的努力，Starfish 团队找回了航天器，但其推进器之一最终失效。在随后的两次演示任务中，他们取得了更大的成功，包括 2025 年发射的“水獭幼崽 2 号”，它一直在近地轨道上与目标航天器近距离飞行。目前它已接近至 1 公里范围内，如果一切顺利，未来几个月内将进行对接。
Starfish also partnered with Impulse Space last summer and used its software to fly the Mira spacecraft after that vehicle had completed its primary mission. Starfish sought to demonstrate that a single lightweight camera system, along with its closed-loop guidance, navigation, and control software, could autonomously rendezvous with another spacecraft. It worked.
去年夏天，Starfish 还与 Impulse Space 合作，在 Mira 航天器完成主要任务后，利用其软件操控该航天器飞行。Starfish 旨在证明一套轻量级摄像系统及其闭环制导、导航与控制软件能够自主与另一台航天器交会。实验成功了。
Now comes the big test, however: flying a full-fledged Otter for NASA. Starfish has five more Otters in production for additional missions to showcase docking, de-orbit, and life extension capabilities. But you only get one chance to make a first impression, and Bennett said he is nervous and excited.
然而，现在面临着真正的重大考验：为 NASA 发射一台功能完备的“水獭”。Starfish 还有五台“水獭”正在生产中，用于后续任务，以展示对接、离轨和寿命延长能力。但第一印象的机会只有一次，贝内特表示他既紧张又兴奋。
“There is always a tension that comes with seeing the first of anything fly, right?” he said. “The other part of this is huge amounts of excitement. I think the excitement comes because this is a new kind of capability that’s finding its way to orbit. The pride part is the amount of effort that it took to get here from ourselves, from the team members, from people working with us, from the customers believing in that this can happen and helping us walk that path.”
“看到任何东西第一次飞行，总会伴随着一种紧张感，对吧？”他说，“另一方面则是巨大的兴奋。我认为这种兴奋源于这是一种正在进入轨道的新型能力。而自豪感则来自于我们自己、团队成员、与我们共事的人，以及相信这一切能够实现并帮助我们走过这段历程的客户所付出的巨大努力。”
“This is a moment to celebrate getting here and affording us this opportunity to go do something big,” he said.
“这是一个值得庆祝的时刻，我们走到了这一步，并获得了去做大事的机会，”他说。