Starfish Space

Otter Pup 2 is now operating as close as 25 meters away from @GilmourSpace's ElaraSat, fully autonomously. This vid contains imagery captured when we were separated by just 33.6 meters.

We’ve demonstrated our ability to safely and precisely operate at very close range, executing intricate maneuvers, gathering detailed imagery, and testing the capabilities we’ll need for docking.

With this progress, Otter Pup 2 has officially completed Characterize, the penultimate phase of its mission. That leaves just one phase left: attempting docking, and a chance to make history.

Otter 24C spacecraft update:

Otter Pup 2 has been making a lot of exciting progress lately, and it’s worth taking a step back to look at where we’re at in the overall mission.

So far, we’ve completed the Long-range Rendezvous, Acquisition, and RPO phases, bringing Otter Pup 2 within 100s of meters of its docking partner, ElaraSat, under closed-loop autonomy.

Next up is the Characterize phase, during which we get within 10s of meters, demonstrating and validating precision maneuvers and gathering another level of detail about ElaraSat as we prepare for final approach and docking attempts.

Two football fields. That’s roughly how close Otter Pup 2 is now regularly operating next to @GilmourSpace’s ElaraSat, fully autonomously. This puts Otter Pup 2 on a very short list of spacecraft in human history.

This video was captured from just 200 meters away as Otter Pup 2 conducted close proximity operations around ElaraSat. Otter Pup 2 is capturing images like these and using them to track and predict the position and orientation of ElaraSat on an ongoing basis.

We’ve gone from thousands of kilometers to hundreds of meters away, continuing to test, iterate and validate our technology along the way. And Otter Pup 2 is not done getting closer, as it continues its mission to make history.

Otter Pup 2 has made it through Acquisition, one of the most challenging phases in its mission! Check out @GilmourSpace’s ElaraSat, our docking partner, from roughly 1 km away.

This is not a flyby. Otter Pup 2 is staying close, making it one of only a small number of free-flying spacecraft in history to operate under control within 1 km of another spacecraft.

With Acquisition complete, Otter Pup 2 is now fully relying on its onboard autonomous relative navigation to stay close to its docking partner. No ground-based navigation needed.

We trust the spacecraft to know where it is, where its partner is, and how to safely stay nearby. That’s the level of autonomy required for safe and scalable rendezvous and docking missions.