Orbit Fab to Launch Orbital Fuel Depot Next Year
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Orbit Fab plans to launch its first operational fuel depot into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than June 2021.
Orbit Fab’s Tanker 001 Tenzing will store propellant for satellite serving spacecraft and other vehicles that need refueling. The spacecraft will be placed in a sun synchronous orbit by one of Spaceflight Inc.’s Sherpa orbital transfer vehicles.
The spacecraft will use Orbit Fab’s Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI) to perform the fuel transfers.
“RAFTI is designed to allow reliable propellant transfers in the harshest space environments, making it ideal for mission operations at any orbit,” according to an Orbit Fab fact sheet. “High and low pressure variants are compatible with common modern propellants and pressurants with external leakages less than 1×10-6 scc/s. RAFTI is configurable to be normally-open or normally-closed in case of power loss, allowing for fail-safe and safe-fail operations for any mission profile.”
“Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI) has been adopted by multiple spacecraft manufacturers and is quickly becoming the industry’s common refueling interface,” the company said in a statement. “It was developed in cooperation with 30 companies and organizations, and is intended to be a drop-in replacement for existing satellite fill and drain valves as it is equivalent in size, mass and cost.”
Earlier this year, the U.S. Air Force awarded Orbit Fab a $3 million contract to develop an in-space xenon pumping system, which is a key technology for refueling satellites in orbit.
“Orbit Fab’s RAFTI supports the Air Force and Space Force need for space combat logistics capabilities (On-Orbit Servicing), which enables space domain awareness,” said Orbit Fab Chief Development Officer Jeremy Schiel. “Refueling is a requirement in the emerging Space Force architecture and for good reason. You don’t want to run out of fuel in the middle of a confrontation.”
The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) America’s Seed Fund also awarded a $222,713 grant to Orbit Fab earlier to help develop the docking system earlier this year.
In 2019, Orbit Fab became the first private company to deliver water to the International Space Station.
5 responses to “Orbit Fab to Launch Orbital Fuel Depot Next Year”
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I thought this was going to be a SpaceX task? what is the relation between SpaceX and Orbit Lab?
Orbit Fab. There’s no relation beyond the likely possibility some of Orbit Fab’s little depots will ride to orbit on SpaceX rockets. Orbit Fab is looking to put up small propellant depots aimed at refueling satellites that use storable propellants. SpaceX is looking to develop the capability to quickly transfer hundreds of tons of cryogenic propellants between various models of its Starship vehicle family. Other companies, including ULA, have recently landed NASA contracts to demonstrate in-space transfer of various kinds of propellants in differing quantities. Propellant depots are the new black, it seems.
Like most things Elon, I expect that SX will swamp the competition when it gets serious about propellent transfer. I can see Orbit Fab becoming Orbit Fade in the not-too-distant future.
Mmmm, I doubt it.
SpaceX, I agree, will handily dominate the market for on-orbit cryo-propellant depots – or at least the methalox ones. But doling out modest quantities of other types of propellants is a business for which I doubt SpaceX would see sufficient profit potential. Terrestrial gas stations are not well-adapted to doling out their wares in sub-gallon quantities, for example.
Small fry like Orbit Fab could well survive, and even thrive, by becoming part of the SpaceX school of pilot fish given that SpaceX is likely to have placed in orbit the majority of the birds subsequently needing OF’s services.
My thought is that SX will develop transfer technology that is far superior to anything that anyone else has got…at least initially. And, based on it’s history, it’ll be looking around for ways to recoup that development cost. Speculating on how it will actually go about doing that is above my pay grade.