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Industry

Space robotics

80 tracked companies; 11 companies with incident history, 15 unique documented incidents. Ranked by RobotRisk index; tick marks the industry median across companies with documented incidents, where nonzero. All industries.

36.0/100Median index across the 11 Space robotics companies with incident history (80 tracked, 69 with none)
11Companies with incident history
15Unique documented incidents
S4Highest severity on file

Analyst brief

Space robotics shows the most uniform record in the dataset: 6 incidents across 4 of 6 tracked companies, with every single entry classified as mission-loss at severity 4. The category has no variation in type or severity mix, reflecting the binary nature of space-mission outcomes as recorded rather than a graduated failure spectrum. ispace, Intuitive Machines, Maxar Space, and Astrobotic account for the named entities, a set consistent with the small, mission-concentrated population of active lunar and deep-space robotics operators.

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Company risk ranking

Index 0-100: each documented incident is weighted by severity and by how well-sourced it is, discounted as it ages (half its weight every 3 years), then summed per company and scaled on a log curve so the highest-risk company worldwide is 100. Rank in industry: position among companies in the same industry that have at least one documented incident. Band groups the index: Critical (75+), High (45-74), Elevated (15-44), Low (under 15 with at least one incident); None documented means no public incident was found, which is not proof of safety.

CompanyRobotRisk index (0-100)Rank in industryBandIncidents
Intuitive Machines
50.8
 1 of 11 High 2
Katalyst Space Technologies
50.5
 2 of 11 High 2
ispace
49.0
 3 of 11 High 2
JAXA
40.1
 4 of 11 Elevated 1
Astrobotic
36.0
 5 of 11 Elevated 1
Maxar Space
36.0
 6 of 11 Elevated 1
Space Machines Company
30.1
 7 of 11 Elevated 1
Momentus
26.8
 8 of 11 Elevated 2
Starfish Space
26.6
 9 of 11 Elevated 1
Northrop Grumman
14.7
 10 of 11 Low 1
Astroscale
8.6
 11 of 11 Low 1

Also active in Space robotics

Companies filed under another industry that also ship Space robotics products.

Airbus Defence and Space Defense / spaceArkisys Defense / spaceBlue Origin Defense / spaceCanadensys Aerospace Defense / spaceChina Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Defense / spaceClearSpace Defense / spaceD-Orbit Defense / spaceFirefly Aerospace Defense / spaceHEO Robotics Defense / spaceHoneybee Robotics Defense / spaceImpulse Space Defense / spaceISRO Defense / spaceKall Morris Incorporated Defense / spaceLunar Outpost Defense / spaceMaxar Technologies Defense / spaceNumerica Corporation Defense / spaceOHB SE Defense / spaceParas Defense and Space Technologies Defense / spaceRedwire Space Defense / spaceRogue Space Systems Defense / spaceSlingshot Aerospace Defense / spaceSpaceX Defense / spaceThales Alenia Space Defense / spaceTrue Anomaly Defense / spaceTurion Space Defense / spaceVenturi Astrolab Defense / space

Incidents

15 of 15 incidents
SevDateCompanyTypeLocationIncidentSource
S419 Aug 2026Katalyst Space Technologies mission-loss Earth orbitNASA and Katalyst end Swift Observatory rescue mission after spacecraft failure · 1 spacecraft (Link) Bloomberg
S4~Jul 2026Katalyst Space Technologies malfunction —Attitude control and reaction wheel failures leave LINK spacecraft spinning uncontrolled, forcing NASA to abandon Swift rescue/reboost · LINK servicing spacecraft (Swift Rescue Mission) Ars Technica
S422 Dec 2025JAXA mission-loss JapanJapanese H3 rocket fails during launch of navigation satellite Space.com / Asahi
S216 Sep 2025Northrop Grumman disruption —NASA, Northrop Grumman postpone Cygnus XL arrival to ISS following propulsion issue · Cygnus XL cargo mission Google News aggregated
S405 Jun 2025ispace mission-loss Mare Frigoris, MoonHAKUTO-R Mission 2 (Resilience) lander crashes on second lunar landing attempt · 1 lander, total loss NASA
S406 Mar 2025Intuitive Machines mission-loss Mons Mouton, MoonIM-2 Athena lander topples over in shadowed crater, mission ends early · 1 lander, total mission loss SpaceNews
S422 May 2024Space Machines Company mission-loss —Optimus-1 orbital servicing satellite lost after communications failure · Optimus-1 orbital servicing satellite psnews.com.au
S401 Mar 2024Maxar Space mission-loss —NASA cancels $2B OSAM-1 robotic satellite-servicing mission over Maxar performance · 1 program, ~$2B mission cancelled CNBC
S422 Feb 2024Intuitive Machines mission-loss lunar south pole, MoonIM-1 Odysseus lander tips over on lunar touchdown · 1 lander Space.com
S409 Jan 2024Astrobotic mission-loss —Peregrine lunar lander propellant leak forces abandonment of Moon landing · 1 lander, total mission loss Spaceflight Now
S412 Jun 2023Starfish Space mission-loss —Spinning spacecraft adds unwelcome twist to Starfish Space's docking test mission · 1 spacecraft (Otter Pup / LEO Pathfinder) GeekWire
S425 Apr 2023ispace mission-loss Atlas crater, MoonHAKUTO-R Mission 1 lander crashes into Moon · 1 lander, total loss ispace
S314 Jun 2022Momentus malfunction —Momentus orbital transfer vehicle suffers power problem after launch · 1 vehicle (Vigoride) Spaceflight Now
S2~Jan 2022Astroscale malfunction —Astroscale pauses debris-removal demo following anomaly SpaceNews
S313 Jul 2021Momentus regulatory —Stable Road and Momentus reach SEC settlement over false claims SpaceNews

Explore combinations

Pre-built views of these incidents by a second dimension.

S3 and above (13)S4 and above (11)
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