RobotRisk Autonomous Systems Incident & Risk Register
RobotRisk › Defense / space
Industry

Defense / space

123 tracked companies; 16 companies with incident history, 21 unique documented incidents. Ranked by RobotRisk index; tick marks industry median where nonzero. All industries.

Analyst brief

The category's sole entity, Starfish Space, is represented by one severity-4 event: an uncontrolled spin during a spacecraft docking test mission resulting in mission loss. The dominant failure mode on record is a test-mission control failure rather than an operational-asset or crewed-mission incident. With only one entity and one event, the data shows complete concentration in a single company and a single test-phase failure. The record is press-driven, based on reporting of the test mission rather than a regulatory finding.

By submitting you agree to the privacy policy. Alerts start immediately; every email has an unsubscribe link. Filter or search the page and the alert follows your selection.

Company risk ranking

CompanyRobotRisk index (0-100)Industry percentileBandIncidents
Katalyst Space Technologies
50.8
 100% High 2
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
48.8
 99% High 2
Baykar
43.7
 98% Elevated 2
JAXA
40.4
 98% Elevated 1
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions
38.2
 97% Elevated 1
Turkish Aerospace Industries
34.2
 96% Elevated 1
Tekever
32.1
 95% Elevated 2
Space Machines Company
27.6
 94% Elevated 1
Momentus
27.1
 93% Elevated 2
Starfish Space
26.9
 93% Elevated 1
STARK Defence
23.5
 92% Elevated 1
AVIC (Aviation Industry Corporation of China)
22.2
 91% Elevated 1
STM (Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik)
20.4
 90% Elevated 1
Northrop Grumman
14.9
 89% Low 1
Safran
8.8
 88% Low 1
Astroscale
8.8
 88% Low 1

Recent 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
S413 Aug 2026General Atomics Aeronautical Systems mission-loss —US lost roughly 25% of MQ-9 Reaper drone fleet during Iran war · 25% of US Reaper fleet (~45 aircraft) lost The Washington Post / Je
S404 Aug 2026Kratos Defense & Security Solutions crash Dugway Proving Ground, UT, USAXQ-58 Valkyrie crashes at Dugway Proving Ground, flights paused · 1 aircraft TWZ
S403 Aug 2026Tekever mission-loss Russia-Ukraine borderTekever AR3 StormShroud UAV shot down and recovered by Russian forces · 1 UAV (AR3 StormShroud) Euronews
S426 Jul 2026Baykar crash —Bayraktar Akıncı shot down over Yemen (first confirmed combat loss) Defence Security Asia
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
S3~Oct 2025STARK Defence malfunction —Stark Defence's Virtus loitering munition fails all four strikes in military trials · 4 of 4 trial strikes failed DroneXL
S216 Sep 2025Northrop Grumman disruption —NASA, Northrop Grumman postpone Cygnus XL arrival to ISS following propulsion issue · Cygnus XL cargo mission Google News aggregated
S431 Aug 2025General Atomics Aeronautical Systems crash —MQ-9 Reaper lost in Middle East due to chafed wire · 1 aircraft Air & Space Forces Magaz
S4~Jun 2025Turkish Aerospace Industries crash Konya, TurkeyTAI Anka-3 UCAV prototype lost in hard-landing crash near Konya Aviation Week / Militarn
S4~Jan 2025Baykar crash LibyaBayraktar Akıncı drone crashes in Libya Military Africa
S412 Dec 2024AVIC (Aviation Industry Corporation of China) crash ChinaYilong-2H drone crashes into Olympic Sports Center in Jingzhou, China Militarnyi
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
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
S408 Mar 2021STM (Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik) regulatory LibyaUN report: STM Kargu-2 loitering munition may have autonomously engaged targets in Libya NPR / New York Times
S329 Dec 2020Tekever malfunction Kent, England, UKAAIB report: Tekever AR5 Evolution Mk 2 double engine shutdown near Lydd, Kent GOV.UK / AAIB
S3~Dec 2019Safran crash —Safran works to correct Patroller UAV after December crash FlightGlobal
S4not documentedSpace Machines Company mission-loss —Optimus-1 orbital servicing satellite lost after communications failure · Optimus-1 orbital servicing satellite psnews.com.au

Explore combinations

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

S3 and above (19)S4 and above (14)
Also from Critical Systems Analysis: CSA - functional safety engineering · Company directory · FSTalent - functional safety jobs