Nasa has awarded a $15m contract to Starfish Space for the agency’s first-ever commercial space debris inspection mission.

The Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability mission – known as SSPICY – aims to conduct close inspection of defunct, or inoperable, US-owned satellites in low Earth orbit.

Nasa has awarded the $15m SSPICY mission contract to Starfish Space, a space technology company based in Washington in the US, which will have three years to execute the mission.

Nasa and Starfish Space took to X to make the announcement:

The aim of the SSPICY mission is to help identify whether defunct satellites in low orbit could be repaired or whether they should be deorbited.

The aim is to help pave the way for future satellite repair and disposal missions, with the ultimate hope of mitigating space debris.

Satellites that are no longer in use can break apart or collide with one another, creating debris clouds that pose risk to other missions in Earth’s orbit and the solar system...