RobotRisk Autonomous Systems Incident & Risk Register
RobotRiskSpace Machines Company

Optimus-1 orbital servicing satellite lost after communications failure

S4 · not documented · Space Machines Company

Record

CompanySpace Machines Company
IndustryDefense / space
Type(s)mission-loss
Datenot documented (date not documented)
Time of daynot documented
Locationno physical site (recall / fleet-wide / aggregate record)
Severity (serious injury, total loss, or grounding)
ScaleOptimus-1 orbital servicing satellite
Confidencemedium
Verified flagYes - independently re-checked against the cited source

Summary

Space Machines Company's Optimus-1 satellite, launched 5 March 2024 on a SpaceX rideshare to demonstrate orbital servicing capability, never established communications after separation; despite weeks of round-the-clock efforts from ground stations worldwide, the company was unable to contact the spacecraft and it was effectively declared a total loss (space junk).

Primary source

psnews.com.au

Publisher: psnews.com.au · Retrieved: 2026-09-16

Supporting source rows (1)
DateSupporting source rowPublisherLink
not documented Optimus-1 orbital servicing satellite lost after communications failure psnews.com.au psnews.com.au

Defense / space context

mission-loss context

Space Machines Company industry position

Related incidents

Other Space Machines Company entries

Report a correction

Open a prefilled GitHub issue

Also from Critical Systems Analysis: CSA - functional safety engineering · Company directory · FSTalent - functional safety jobs