DoD Awards Orbital Operations Up to $35M for Cryogenic Space Maneuver Demo

Orbital Operations has won up to $35 million from the Department of Defense under a prototype Other Transaction Agreement to fly a full-scale, in-orbit demonstration of Astraeus, its cryogenic-maneuvering vehicle. The Long Beach, California startup also closed a $7 million seed extension, signaling momentum toward a first flight of a reusable vehicle designed to transport payloads across orbits.

CEO and cofounder Ben Schleuniger likens Astraeus to the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which for decades has hauled cargo, served as a gunship, and refueled jets midair. Orbital Operations wants to bring that mission flexibility to space. "Space is now a contested environment," Schleuniger told Payload. "We're going into this new space age where there's all these new orbits and all of these new ideas coming around, we just need more dynamic assets out there to transport things around."

The seed extension was led by DTX Ventures, bringing the company's total raised to roughly $16 million. GoAhead Ventures and Solaris Ventures participated alongside follow-on investment from Initialized Capital, Harpoon Ventures, TRAC VC, and others.

Astraeus is designed to bring launch-vehicle-class propulsion to on-orbit operations. An onboard refrigeration system is built to keep its liquid hydrogen and oxygen from boiling off, with the goal of keeping the vehicle on-orbit for years, far longer than the week or so a disposable stage lasts. The company aims to carry out maneuvers within single-digit hours of a command, well inside the 48-hour window Schleuniger said military operators want. After ferrying payloads to higher orbits, Astraeus is built to return to low Earth orbit to refuel. The same base vehicle can be fitted for logistics, tactical, or refueling missions, mirroring the C-130's mission-dependent variants.

"In a sense, we're looking to be that reusable third stage," Schleuniger said. "It's very dual use, but it also unlocks just all dynamic operations out in orbit, not just range, but speed."

Schleuniger pointed to a recent example of why the Pentagon wants these capabilities. Over the past week, Russia's Cosmos 2612 shadowed ICEYE-X36, a US-flagged radar satellite widely believed to supply imagery to Ukraine. LeoLabs tracked the Russian spacecraft closing to roughly 500 meters between October 15 and 19 before it drifted away. Still, Schleuniger said demand was already high before the incident, pointing to SPACECOM's list of technology priorities for 2029 to 2033, which names sustained space maneuver as a top need.

The company's demonstration directly addresses a stated military requirement for dynamic, rapid-response assets in orbit, capabilities Schleuniger said operators have sought and that recent events underscore.

The roughly 13-person team went from closing its seed round to a full-pressure hot-fire in under six months. Next up are more engine hot-fires, refrigeration-cycle work, and qualification before flight. More fundraising is likely, but the government award "is really to get us to that first flight," Schleuniger said.