Orbital tug startup Starfish Space wins $37.5 million contract from Space Force
Even though problems with another company’s deployment system prevented a docking test in orbit last month of its Otter Pup tug, the orbital tug startup Starfish Space has won a $37.5 million contract from Space Force to further develop its autonomous rendezvous and docking system.
The newly announced $37.5 million Space Force contract will support the development of an Otter demonstration spacecraft over the course of the next four years. In its announcement of the fixed-price contract — which was awarded through the Strategic Funding Increase program, or STRATFI — the Department of Defense said the project’s goal is to “improve maneuverability on-orbit and enable dynamic space operations docking and maneuvering of Department of Defense assets on-orbit.”
Though the docking test was prevented when the tug deploying Otter Pup (owned by a different tug company, Launcher) went into an unplanned spin, Otter Pup was deployed and brought under control. Those maneuvers however used up most of its fuel. Engineers were still able to work with another orbital tug company, D-Orbit, to maneuver and rendezvous with that company’s ION tug and thus succeed in demonstrating Pup’s rendezvous technolgoy.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Even though problems with another company’s deployment system prevented a docking test in orbit last month of its Otter Pup tug, the orbital tug startup Starfish Space has won a $37.5 million contract from Space Force to further develop its autonomous rendezvous and docking system.
The newly announced $37.5 million Space Force contract will support the development of an Otter demonstration spacecraft over the course of the next four years. In its announcement of the fixed-price contract — which was awarded through the Strategic Funding Increase program, or STRATFI — the Department of Defense said the project’s goal is to “improve maneuverability on-orbit and enable dynamic space operations docking and maneuvering of Department of Defense assets on-orbit.”
Though the docking test was prevented when the tug deploying Otter Pup (owned by a different tug company, Launcher) went into an unplanned spin, Otter Pup was deployed and brought under control. Those maneuvers however used up most of its fuel. Engineers were still able to work with another orbital tug company, D-Orbit, to maneuver and rendezvous with that company’s ION tug and thus succeed in demonstrating Pup’s rendezvous technolgoy.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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