In co-founding Starfish Space, Austin Link has combined deep technical understanding, unique business insights, and clear communication to shape the company into a respectable resource for affordable and available satellite servicing. Established in 2019, Starfish builds a satellite called the Otter capable of grabbing and moving objects in space. This ability helps extend the life of large geostationary satellites and dispose of dead ones. Otter also lays the foundation for an entire field of in-space activities - called in-space assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) - that before Starfish were too expensive to undertake at scale.

Starfish quickly has become the leading U.S.-based ISAM company, having raised $50 million+ in capital, reached annual revenue in the tens of millions, grown to 75 employees, and secured Otter contract with NASA, the U.S. Space Force, and Intelsat. The team has two satellites on-orbit and is building several more.

Austin's duties as co-founder are wide-ranging - from system design to program management to supplier selection, hiring, and fundraising. His undergraduate degree in physics equipped him with some technical abilities, but he said it was Purdue Engineering that taught him how to apply those skills to real technology. "Purdue also gave me insight into how the industry operates and helped me build a network of key connections," he said. In fact, out of the first 30 (and still current) Starfish employees hired, five were Austin's classmates in Purdue's AAE graduate program. Before Starfish, Austin contributed to commercial, civil, and defense space applications at Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin.