Orbital Operations Raises $8.8-Million Seed Round

Long Beach-based Orbital Operations raised an $8.8-million seed round led by Initialized Capital to build high-thrust orbital vehicles. The company was founded in 2023 by former Relativity Space engineers Benjamin Schleuniger and Ross Doherty, who recently participated in Y Combinator’s accelerator program. It is developing Astraeus, a high-thrust, cryogenic space vehicle that can stay in orbit for years. The company is focused on national defense and intends for the U.S. Space Force to utilize its space vehicle as a third-stage rocket that can loiter indefinitely for interception and space domain awareness.

Astraeus will be powered by a proprietary 10,000 lb-thrust engine, capable of delivering 10 kilometers per second of delta-v, which is enough to wait in low Earth orbit, then sprint to a target when needed. Fuel components, liquid hydrogen and oxygen boil off in space, which can cut missions short. The company plans to develop an active cooling system with heat exchangers and turbomachinery to keep propellants stable.

While the tech could serve commercial uses, it is developing technology first for counterspace defense. With the funding, it will develop an engine test stand and a ground-based demo of the cooling system, aiming to prove long-term propellant storage by year’s end.

Information for this article was sourced from Orbital Operations.