On this June episode of The Sky Above, host Leah Pezzetti sits down with the co-founder of a Washington-based company creating the technology to service satellites.
SEATTLE —
On this June episode of The Sky Above, hosted by Leah Pezzetti:
June’s full moon details, a summer solstice that squeezes the night to barely eight hours, a meteor shower battling bright moonlight and a parade of planets in the western sky after dark. Plus, a Washington-based aerospace company working to create a tool that can service satellites while in orbit.
NASA Solar System Ambassador and Seattle Astronomical Society member Keith Krumm outlined the upcoming sky events coming this month:
June’s key dates:
- June 14: New moon (best for stargazing)
- June 21: Summer solstice… 16 hours of daylight in Washington!
- June 29: Full “Strawberry” Moon
June’s full moon carries multiple names: the Strawberry Moon in both Native American and Western cultures, as well as the Rose Moon and Honey Moon, but astronomers know it by a fourth: the Short Night Full Moon.
The label makes sense once you flip your mental model. Summer’s long days are summer’s short nights, and the June 29 full moon rises just days after the solstice, meaning the sky barely dims before the brilliant orb is already climbing in the east. With the sun setting after 9 p.m. in Seattle, true astronomical darkness arrives well past 10 p.m., leaving a narrow window before moonrise reclaims the sky.
For the best unobstructed stargazing, target the week of the new moon, June 14. Mid-month is prime time.
The June Bootids, named for the constellation Boötes from which they appear to radiate, peak the night of June 27 at around 9 p.m. Observers should look straight overhead, toward the zenith, once the sky darkens fully.
Krumm said the shower is caused by debris shed by comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke, which orbits the sun every 6.3 years and will make a close approach in August 2027. Earth passes through the comet’s debris trail every year, though “variable” is the operative word: rates can range from a handful of meteors per hour to brief outbursts of dozens. Memorable displays are possible but not guaranteed.
This year, the June 29 full moon all but straddles the June 27 peak, and its light will overwhelm dimmer meteors.
Planets: Venus leads a busy western sky
June is a rich month for planetary viewing, with several objects making notable appearances at different hours:
- All month: Venus climbs higher into the western sky each evening. Look west around sunset for a brilliant white point of light that outshines everything else
- June 7: Jupiter and Venus stand side by side at nightfall in the west, with brighter Venus to the right. One of the month’s most striking naked-eye events
- June 16–17: The crescent moon swings past Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and the twin stars of Gemini in a sweeping arc across the western sky after sunset
- Mid-month: Saturn rises after midnight in the east. Mars also appears in the pre-dawn eastern sky mid-month
The Big Dipper is not a constellation
Nearly everyone can spot the Big Dipper, but Keith Krumm says it is technically not a constellation. It is an asterism, a distinctive grouping of stars that forms a recognizable pattern without meeting the formal definition of a constellation. The Big Dipper’s seven stars are actually part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear.
Another famous asterism visible this month is the Summer Triangle: three stars named Vega, Deneb and Altair, which connects three separate constellations and serves as a useful navigation anchor for the summer sky.
One bonus feature: the second star in the handle of the Big Dipper is actually two stars. The pair, known as Mizar and Alcor, form a true binary system located about 81 and 83 light-years from Earth. Sharp-eyed observers can split them with the naked eye; binoculars or a small telescope make the split easy. Roman commanders reportedly used this double star as an eyesight test for would-be soldiers, if a recruit could detect the two stars, he was in.
The Big Dipper is also circumpolar from most northern latitudes, meaning it never rises or sets but circles continuously around Polaris, the North Star, all night and all year.
The Sky Above’s June guest: Trevor Bennett from Washington-based satellite servicing company Starfish Space
A small spacecraft about the size of a microwave is currently circling Earth at roughly 17,500 miles per hour, and within the coming months it is going to attempt something that has never been done between two commercial satellites: docking in low-Earth orbit.
The spacecraft is called Otter Pup 2. It belongs to Starfish Space, a satellite servicing company headquartered in Tukwila, Washington. Satellite servicing is the practice of repairing, refueling or upgrading a spacecraft while it is still operating in orbit, rather than letting it fail or burning it up in the atmosphere. Think of it as an orbital tow truck, or a mobile mechanic making a house call at 250 miles above Earth.
The idea sounds straightforward. The physics are anything but. Satellites in low-Earth orbit travel at roughly 17,500 miles per hour. At that speed, a spacecraft moves approximately one mile in the time it takes to blink your eye. Attempting to pull alongside another spacecraft and make contact at those velocities is the equivalent of giving a high five to someone on the highway. The target satellite has no special docking hardware; it was never designed to be caught. Otter Pup 2 must chase it down and grab it entirely on its own.
Otter Pup 2 launched in July 2025 and has been operating in orbit for nearly a year. It is a demonstration mission, a proof-of-concept designed to show that an autonomous spacecraft can do the hard thing: find another satellite, approach it, and make first contact. The spacecraft uses electrostatic attraction to stick to its target, the same principle behind static charge from socks on carpet, scaled up into a docking mechanism. Onboard cameras serve as its eyes. A single thruster handles maneuvering. There is no joystick operator on the ground guiding it in real time; the spacecraft flies itself.
If the docking succeeds over the coming months, it will be the first time two commercial satellites have ever linked up in low-Earth orbit. That milestone matters well beyond the bragging rights. It would establish that aging or broken satellites can be reached and serviced without launching a costly replacement, and that the price of doing so can be measured in a few million dollars rather than the billion-dollar figures historically associated with on-orbit work.
Dr. Trevor Bennett, co-founder of Starfish Space, points to the 2009 Iridium-Cosmos collision as a cautionary tale: two satellites crossed paths and created a debris cloud so dense that nearby orbits were effectively unusable for years. Routine servicing and controlled deorbiting of aging spacecraft, he argues, is the long-term answer to keeping the orbital environment safe and functional for everyone who depends on it, from GPS users to weather forecasters to internet providers.
“Your phone has a finite life. Your car has a finite life. You can take it to a mechanic. That’s what we want our spacecraft to be able to go be that mobile mechanic right up next to another spacecraft, catch it, and then actually ultimately dock with it,” said Bennett.
The longer vision is bigger still. Bennett describes a future space ecosystem where satellites are manufactured, upgraded and recycled in orbit the way infrastructure is maintained on Earth, supported by a fleet of service vehicles doing the mechanical work that keeps everything running.
You can watch a new episode of The Sky Above every month on KING 5.
To ensure diverse coverage and expert insight across a wide range of topics, our publication features contributions from multiple staff writers with varied areas of expertise.
