Starfish Space Says Otter 24C Cannot Be Recovered After Communications Loss

Starfish Space said on Nov. 3, 2026, that its Otter 24C spacecraft could not be recovered after communications were lost during commissioning. The company attributed the loss of contact to a fault-protection error in the Astro Digital satellite bus that switched off the radio.

Key details

• Otter 24C launched Oct. 1, 2026, aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission.
• NASA assigned the spacecraft to SSPICY, short for Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability, a technology-demonstration mission for spacecraft inspection and servicing.
• The planned mission called for visual inspection approaches to as many as four inoperable U.S.-origin space objects over two years.
• Starfish Space said it was developing changes intended to reduce the likelihood of a similar failure on later missions.

Otter 24C launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission on Oct. 1, 2026.

Why it matters

SSPICY aimed to demonstrate inspection and servicing technologies that could support future debris-removal applications. The planned approaches to inoperable objects were intended to test those capabilities in space.