Orbital Operations
Moving customers in space with a reusable, high thrust vehicle
Orbital Operations is developing a high thrust space vehicle that is refuellable and stays in orbit to ferry customers beyond low earth orbit (LEO). This allows satellite customers to take advantage of the low cost, low lead time, and low effort launches to LEO and have us rendezvous with them in space to transport them to their final destination.
Our high thrust and high efficiency is made possible by a unique cryogenic fuel management system being implemented on the vehicle to keep propellants cold so they don't boil. This allows us to use the same propulsion systems that have been developed by launch vehicles over the last few decades (NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Relativity Space, ect.).
Ben and Ross met while working together at Relativity Space, where they qualified the cryogenic flight termination valves for the Terran 1 rocket and continued working together on the heat exchangers and turbomachinery for the AeonR engine.
We are currently working on the first demo of our unique cryo management system and intend to launch an operational vehicle by 2027.
Active Founders
Ross Doherty, Co-Founder & COO
Ross is the Co-founder and COO of Orbital Operations.
He has spent his entire career in the aerospace industry, from Aerojet Rocketdyne, to Blue Origin, and most recently Relativity Space, where he owned all turbomachinery manufacturing and assembly for the Aeon-R engine. He was also responsible for the Flight Termination System test and qualification program for the TM-1 rocket.
Ross has deep expertise in complex manufacturing processes, assembly, test, and chemical propulsion development.
Ben Schleuniger, Founder
Ben Schleungier is the Co-founder and CEO of Orbital Operations.
He started his career at NASA in propulsion before moving on to SpaceX and then as an early employee at Relativity Space. He owned the fluid systems for the TM1 rocket, the complex heat exchangers on the AeonR engine, and built the Components team and the Integrated Design and Analysis teams from the ground up.
Ben has an deep understanding of rocket engine design and analysis and building high performance engineering teams.
YC Sign Photo
Selected answers from Orbital Operations's original YC application for the W25 Batch
Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.
We handle space logistics for LEO and beyond.