Starfish space has closed a new round of funding led by a major defense technology investor as it plans to launch three large satellite servicing and inspection spacecraft in 2026.

The Washington-based startup’s Otter spacecraft is designed for two primary missions: extending the operational life of expensive satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) and disposing of defunct satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). This is a series of capabilities that have never been available to satellite operators, who launch their satellites with the expectation that they will only have a limited useful life.

The goal, as Starfish CEO and co-founder Austin Link said in a recent interview, is to “make it affordable enough that the benefits of maintaining your satellite outweigh the costs.”

The $29 million funding round was led by Shield Capital, a venture capital firm focused on financing technologies that will affect U.S. national security. It has only been involved in a handful of other deals in the space industry. The round also includes participation from new investors Point72 Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, Aero X Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, TRAC VC and existing investors Munich Re Ventures, Toyota Ventures, NFX and Industrious Ventures.

“You start a company because you want to build satellites, not because you want to raise money,” Link told TechCrunch. Link founded Starfish in 2019 with Trevor Bennett after both men worked as flight science engineers at Blue Origin. They raised $7 million in 2021 And $14 million two years later. Starfish launched its first demonstration mission last summer, a small-scale spacecraft aptly called the Otter Pup.

Although this mission didn’t quite go as plannedStarfish has since racked up several wins, including three separate contracts for the full-size Otter spacecraft. This includes a $37.5 million deal with the U.S. Space Force for a first-of-its-kind defense satellite docking and maneuvering mission in GEO and a contract with a major satellite communications company. Intelsat for life extension services. The third contract, a $15 million NASA mission to inspect several missing satellites in LEO, was announced while Starfish was in the midst of fundraising, Link said.

Starfish deliberately sought to find investors with experience helping its portfolio companies sell to the government, Link said. “Government is a customer that can sometimes be more difficult to evolve with, so having investors who understand the process a little better…we thought they would be good additions to our cap table.” »

Link added that the company is seeing a “pretty even split” of demand between government and commercial customers.

Satellite maintenance, life extension and disposal are “exciting first steps,” Link said, but they are steps on the path to developing a broader suite of capabilities for missions in even more ambitious orbits.

“Along the way, we end up with this set of autonomy and robotics technologies and capabilities and data sets that allow us to eventually go and do a set of complex robotics or maintenance or type missions. ISAM in space that maybe extends a little bit beyond what we do with the otter,” he said. “I think a lot of them are still far away, and not. necessarily what we’re focusing on right now…but one part of the effort going into the Otter today and funded by this funding round, and part of the growth leading up to it leads to the longer term, where Starfish Space can have a huge impact on the way humans navigate towards the universe.