TOKYO \u2014 With a new chief executive and funding round, satellite refueling company Orbit Fab hopes to make the transition from technology development to operations.<\/p>\n
The Colorado-based company announced July 7 that it hired Peter Shaper as its chief executive. Shaper has worked in private equity for three decades in roles that included serving as chief executive of satellite services companies CapRock Communications and Speedcast.<\/p>\n
Shaper said in an interview that he was brought in by the company\u2019s lead investor, Stride Capital, earlier this year as a member of the board when the company\u2019s founding chief executive, Daniel Faber, announced he would step down. \u201cAs I learned more and more about the business, I got more excited about it and ended up starting what was going to be a board engagement into becoming the CEO,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
What excited him was the prospect of taking the satellite refueling technology the company had developed and building it into a sustainable business. \u201cThe team has done the hard work. They have developed the technology,\u201d he said. \u201cThe investor decided they would like me to come in and really commercialize things \u2014 go win contracts and become a commercial business \u2014 instead of just continuing to develop technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orbit Fab is best known in the industry for RAFTI, a docking and refueling interface designed to allow spacecraft to be refueled in orbit. The company has three demonstration missions in development, scheduled to fly in the next 18 to 24 months, to show it can use that technology to refuel government satellites.<\/p>\n
Those demo missions, Shaper said, will help the company bridge the gap from technology development to operations, unlocking a backlog of more than $40 million in contracts for on-orbit refueling services. \u201cThese demonstrations bring it all together and deliver the first fuel for space. There\u2019s pent-up customer demand waiting to see these demonstrations work effectively,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Those demo missions are similar in that they involve using a fuel \u201cshuttle\u201d the company has developed to provide hydrazine to a government satellite. \u201cWe have three shots on goal to make sure we can make everything work entirely properly and build the confidence that this is commercial and it\u2019s ready for business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the company is working on how to turn that technical ability to refuel satellites into a business. That includes, he said, building out the overall concept of operations of the refueling service, such as timelines and pricing. He argued that had been largely overlooked at the company before he joined as it worked on the technology.<\/p>\n
To support that work, the company also announced July 7 it raised more than $25 million in interim funding from Stride Capital. Don Rogers, founder and managing partner of Stride Capital, is joining the Orbit Fab board along with Roger Teague, a former U.S. Air Force major general who has worked in the space industry after retirement.<\/p>\n
The interim funding will support Orbit Fab through late this year as it works to raise a Series B round. Shaper said the company is looking to raise between $30 million and $50 million in that Series B round that would take the company through at least two of its planned demo missions in 2027 and its first commercial contracts.<\/p>\n