Space Machines Company and Orbit Fab join forces to advance in-orbit roadside assistance
Space Machines Company, the leading Australian in-space servicing organisation, and U.S.-based Orbit Fab, the leading global provider of on-orbit refuelling services, have entered into a partnership combining their expertise to advance in-space servicing capabilities and establish a sustainable space ecosystem. These integrated technologies will enhance space sustainability through reduced debris and extended satellite lifespans.
The partnership brings together two industry leaders from opposite sides of the globe and is defined by the joining of innovative technologies, most notably the installation of Orbit Fab’s space fiducial alignment markers on Space Machine Company’s Orbital Servicing Vehicle, Optimus. These markers will act like QR Codes in space, allowing Space Machines Company to work collaboratively with an approaching vehicle by using the markers to provide valuable position and orientation data, ensuring safe and reliable on-orbit operations. Optimus will provide on-orbit, transportation and other in-space services following its launch on the SpaceX Transporter-10 in early 2024.
The success and sustainability of Optimus’ launch will be supported by the attachment of the two ‘fiducial’ markers developed by Orbit Fab. These fiducials, which are designed to support the safe and effective navigation and approach of Optimus, will demonstrate Orbit Fab’s ability to achieve safe navigation for the refuelling of spacecraft in-orbit.
This partnership will reach a significant milestone in 2024, with both companies scheduled to launch missions on board SpaceX Transporter rideshares. The mission of Space Machines Company and Orbit Fab is geared towards conducting a range of rendezvous and proximity operations maneuvers to validate and test the technologies of both companies. The cooperation between Space Machines Company, Orbit Fab, and SpaceX also represents a practical example of successful international collaboration.
Orbit Fab and Space Machines Company join forces to not only combine expertise and foster strategic national capabilities for both Australia and the U.S. but to champion their shared goals of driving improved space sustainability through reduced debris and an on-orbit circular economy. By partnering to undertake a suite of safe, secure, and sustainable proximity operations, Orbit Fab and Space Machines Company will play a pivotal role in defining this developing commercial technology to unlock on-orbit refuelling, servicing, repair, and de-orbit innovation for the global space sector.
“This collaboration represents a significant milestone in the advancement of in-space servicing technologies,” said Rajat Kulshrestha, Space Machines Company co-founder and CEO. “It is the first purely commercial partnership of its kind and will serve as a pioneering example of in-space validation of these groundbreaking technologies. By leveraging our respective strengths and expertise, Space Machines Company and Orbit Fab are setting a new standard for international collaboration in the space industry.”
“Orbit Fab was founded to eliminate the single-use spacecraft paradigm through in-space refuelling. Our collaborative work with Space Machines Company demonstrates cooperative docking alignment markers that support safe, sustainable space operations,” said Daniel Faber, Orbit Fab CEO. “We provide these spacecraft fiducials to support cooperative refuelling in space, but they can also support any satellite servicing activities. By simply including a low-footprint fiducial market, any company can make its assets serviceable just as Space Machines Company has done.”
Space Machines Company (SMC) is an Australian company delivering on-orbit servicing and protection of critical space infrastructure through its Orbital Servicing Network. SMC supports mobility, inspection, deorbiting, repair, life extension, and protection capability to satellite customers when and where they need it.
Orbit Fab is the leading provider of in-space refueling services delivering propellants that allow for extended missions and fuel the growth of the in-space economy, enabling dynamic space operations and offering access to significant cost-savings and revenue opportunities. Over the past decade, rockets have become reusable. Orbit Fab is making satellites reusable. The company, based in Lafayette, Colorado, with offices in the UK, has developed the Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI) as well as spacecraft fiducial markers, which are being integrated aboard a growing number of government and commercial spacecraft to enable refuelling in GEO and LEO orbits. Orbit Fab has signed the first government and commercial fuel delivery agreements in GEO.