1980's sci fi cartoon, where space stations are destroyed but their crews escape in life pods

Question

So this is way back in my youth (single digit age) and I saw this one cartoon, but can't remember the name or its full premise. I think about it from time to time and it always drive me crazy. I think it may just have been an episode of a series as I don't remember it being that long.

Here's what I remember:

We open up in space on a space station with a couple of guys. Suddenly it gets attacked (or some other disaster occurs) and the space station is destroyed. A part of the space station is seen drifting away (we learn later it's the life support module).

We cut to another space station where a pair of people walk in and remove their space suit helmets and one is revealed to be a young beautiful woman. She looks out a large bay window and comments on how pretty something is. We then see, out the window, some kind of large manta ray-esque hovering outside along with several smaller ones. Another woman, a scientist already on the space station explains the creatures to her.

Later, the same calamity that destroyed the first station approaches this new one. In a desperate move to save themselves they grappling hook the large manta ray, as it begins to flee, and have it drag the station away. They eventually lose the calamity and the ray in some cloud/nebula area and they're badly damaged.

Cut to a third station (I think a bigger command base as it has a large crew). They get some kind of general distress message or figure out somethings gone wrong and a group of them head out in fighter or other small nimble craft to search for their missing friends.

Back at the damaged station, they realize that they won't be found where they are and the only way to get rescued is to jettison their life support module and hope it gets found. They all put on the space suits and eject the module.

We see a life support module get hit by something and explode (It could be the one from the very first station, but I feel like it was from the one trying to call for help, and later when the rescue team arrive, they find the first module and assume it came from the one in the nebula)

Also, the rescue team arrive, they find the first module and assume it came from the one in the nebula, they confront the calamity...I think. (The climax of this thing is lost to me which is why it troubles me.) But the people on the space station are seen to be running out of air and are rescued in the nick of time.

The show wraps up this several of the rescued and rescuers sitting at a table. The beautiful woman sitting close to one of the rescuer guys, suggesting they were in a relationship the whole time.

I hope there's enough detail in this description for someone to pull from their memory the identity of this long loss cartoon.

Answer 1

You're remembering the first episode of Starcom: The US Space Force, a shortlived 80s cartoon.

Most of the action is set in a gas giant - not certain if it's Jupiter or a generic planet that looks like Jupiter - where scientists are studying 'air whales' - it's one of these that the young woman makes the 'beautiful' comment about at 03:10 in the video.

The action plays out pretty much as you describe, down to the characters sitting together at the end - the young scientist and the primary rescuer are brother and sister rather than in a relationship, although on rewatching she is dating one of the other pilots whonis also present.