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Starfish Space Pulls Otter Pup Servicing Vehicle Back From "the Brink Of Death"

Against all odds, Starfish Space has managed to pull its first orbital mission back from the brink of catastrophe, with the startup saying Tuesday that it has regained control over the Otter Pup spacecraft that had been rapidly tumbling through space.

The Kent, Washington–based startup said it will now move ahead with an "extensive checkout" of the spacecraft's onboard systems and a search for a new partner for its rendezvous, proximity and docking (RPD) mission.

The mission seemed doomed to failure back in June. Starfish was one of several companies that hitched a ride to orbit on a space tug operated by Launcher (now owned by Vast). But shortly after reaching low Earth orbit, Launcher mission commanders made the decision to emergency deploy all onboard payloads after the space tug experienced a glitch that caused it to start to rapidly tumble.

While that emergency deployment gave Otter Pup a chance to survive, it sent the spacecraft tumbling, too — at a rotation rate of excess of almost one full rotation per second, as opposed to the rate of one or two degrees per second that spacecraft are designed for.

While the rotation rate started to slowly decline on its own, due to electromagnetic and atmospheric drag, the company realized it wouldn't be enough to fully slow the spacecraft. So, they got to work conceiving, developing, and eventually executing a plan to use the spacecraft's magnetic torque rods to essentially "push off" from Earth's atmosphere and gradually decrease tumble.

Starfish engineers managed the feat against some challenging conditions. In a statement released Tuesday, the startup details how Otter Pup experienced a series of low power events that "pushed it to the brink of death." Starfish said it worked with its mission partners Astro Digital, the satellite chassis manufacturer, and Advanced Solutions Inc., a Rocket Lab subsidiary, to reorient the spacecraft so it could recharge itself.

Provided that Otter Pup receives a full bill of health, Starfish now needs to find another partner for its mission. It had originally planned to demonstrate Otter Pup's RPD capabilities with Launcher's space tug — though that is obviously no longer possible.

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Hollywood Actress Crystal Finn Bitten By Otter Amid Rare Uptick In Attacks

Hollywood actress Crystal Finn, who appeared in the final season of the HBO hit series "Succession," said she was swimming in a California river last month, when something bit her lower extremities. 

"I felt something on my backside and on my leg," Finn told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I started looking around and yelling out and (the otters) popped up right in front of me. Then they dove down and started going at me again."

The actress, who was treated at a hospital for the bites after the incident in North California's Feather River, is not the only one to be bitten by the marine mammals in what experts are saying is a rare uptick in attacks. 

"After the first otter attack I thought, 'Wow that was kind of special' and then two days later there was another one," Tahoe Forest Hospital emergency room physician Dr. Martin Rosengreen told the newspaper. 

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Actress Crystal Finn was attacked by an otter while swimming in a Northern California river.  (Getty)

He said the first victim he saw suffered severe injuries with at least 15 to 20 bites after swimming in Serene Lakes in Northern California.

"She was out swimming in the middle of a lake and noticed something brush up on her leg," Rosengreen said. "Then, all of a sudden they started attacking, and she was trying to fend them off and swim away from them at the same time." 

Three women in Montana were also bitten by otters while inner tubing and another otter near Santa Cruz, California, known at "841," continues to evade capture after biting and wrestling away surfboards from surfers. 

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Finn, who played producer Lauren Pawson in "Succession," said she saw three otters during her attack and assumed it was a mother protecting her pups. 

"I could see the bites on my legs and knew I had been bitten on my butt — that one was the worst, but I couldn't see it," she said. "The bites really hurt."

She added that she wouldn't have thought to be careful if she had the animals before the attack. 

"If I had seen them, I don't think it would have given me pause," she explained. "I would have thought, 'Oh those cute river otters.'"

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But she said she now will rethink bringing her daughter to swim in the river, saying an attack on a child, "It would have been a lot worse." 

Otter At Oregon Coast Aquarium Celebrates 12th Birthday

NEWPORT Ore. (KPTV) - Oregon Coast Aquarium celebrates a big birthday Monday.

Schuster, the newly turned 12-year-old otter is the aquariums oldest otter.

The aquarium said he is the oldest, and perhaps their wisest, sea otter.

Schuster was found stranded in California at only 10 weeks old, and is named after the pilot Steve Schuster, who donated the time and resources to get the otter up to Oregon.

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