NASA has awarded a $15 million contract to Starfish Space to fund the development of a debris survey mission while exploring the future of a larger satellite maintenance project.

On September 25, NASA announced that it had awarded Seattle-based Starfish Space a Phase 3 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to complete development of the Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission, scheduled for launch on September 25. 2026.

SSPICY will use Otter’s spacecraft, about the size of a kitchen stove, to approach and examine several defunct U.S. spacecraft in low Earth orbit using electric propulsion. The Otter lander will approach each spacecraft within a few hundred meters and observe its condition before moving on to the next object.

“The SSPICY mission is designed to develop technologies necessary for U.S. commercial satellite maintenance and logistics or disposal capabilities,” said Beau Naas, NASA’s senior technical manager for the Space Maintenance, Manufacturing and Assembly Division of the Space Technology Mission Office at the agency. expression.

Starfish Space said it has a list of potential objects to be visited by the SSPICY mission but has not disclosed them. The spacecraft will only approach objects that their owners have given permission to examine.

“Working with NASA on this mission will allow us to push the boundaries of satellite service,” Starfish Space co-founder Trevor Bennett said in a statement. “By improving verification and analysis of orbiting satellites, we are helping the industry move from a disposable spacecraft model to one where spacecraft can be serviced and maintained and even assembled autonomously in space.”

Satellite maintenance companies in the US are urging NASA to fund such missions. They note that similar missions are under development or operation with support from organizations in Europe and Japan. One example of this is Astroscale’s ADRAS-J mission, which is currently testing the defunct H-2A upper stage in low Earth orbit as a precursor to a debris removal mission supported by the Japanese space agency JAXA.

“I think we need to take this step to say where we can bet with industry to demonstrate technologies that will make space sustainability through on-orbit service a reality,” said Dave Hebert, senior vice president. at Astroscale USA during a panel discussion at the Space Logistics Conference on September 26.

The future of OSAM-1

Other than the On-Orbit Maintenance, Assembly and Production 1 (OSAM-1) project, SSPICY is currently the only NASA-funded flight demonstration of satellite maintenance technologies in development, Naas said during another conference session.

However, NASA plans to cancel OSAM-1 due to cost overruns and schedule delays. The agency announced on September 5 that it had approved the cancellation decision announced earlier this year, following a review of the proposed plan to revise the mission to ensure its launch in 2026.

But OSAM-1’s fate may depend on Congress, which could decide to continue funding the mission in the final fiscal year in 2025. On September 19, nine members of Maryland’s congressional delegation sent a letter to NASA announcing that they were requesting more information about the agency’s decision to cancel OSAM-1, which is managed by the state’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

“We are currently witnessing a commercial space launch boom, and it is critical that NASA prioritize controlling the growth of orbital debris, especially at a time when private actors have no incentive to do so,” the participants wrote in a letter. copies of the agency’s plan to launch OSAM-1 in 2026 and other details about the agency’s decision to cancel the mission.

Currently, studies on OSAM-1 are continuing. “The project will continue until Congress decides to cancel it,” Jill McGuire, associate director of Goddard’s research projects and space services division, said at the conference. After the thermovacuum test is completed, the robotic arm is planned to be installed next week.

When NASA announced it stood by its decision to cancel OSAM-1, it issued a request for information (RFI) seeking concepts for “alternative use scenarios” for the spacecraft. Responses to the RFI are due to NASA by September 30.

An agency team will review the responses and report back to agency leadership, McGuire said. “Once NASA management receives this data, they will make a decision on how to proceed,” he said. “That’s all we know right now.”