Orbital Operations wins SpaceWERX award for its satellite defense vehicle

Why it matters

The award moves Orbital Operations into a Space Force pathway that can lead from feasibility work to a Phase II prototype for rapid orbital maneuver.

Orbital Operations, founded by Ben Schleuniger (@BenSchleuniger) and Ross Doherty, said on X on July 29th that it was selected as an awardee in the U.S. Space Force's Adaptive and Intelligent Space Challenge.

Orbital Operations said the award will support further development of its core technology for Space Force missions. Orbital Operations linked its announcement to a SpaceWERX post identifying the challenge awardees.

The selection puts Orbital Operations into a structured Space Force research program built around autonomous, resilient satellite operations in contested or communication-degraded environments. The challenge, led by Task Force Futures and SpaceWERX, targets three areas: onboard computing and algorithms, sensor payloads, and adaptable spacecraft bus design.

The immediate work is a Phase I feasibility study rather than a flight demonstration. According to the challenge solicitation, awardees must develop a concept of operations, analyze technical risks and mission uses, and work with a qualified research institution. Orbital Operations did not identify its research partner in the July 29th announcement.

Near the end of Phase I, awardees are expected to present at a showcase in El Segundo, California. The technical documents and presentation delivered there will serve as the submissions used to choose Phase II recipients. Phase II would fund the development and demonstration of functional hardware, software, or an integrated prototype.

Astraeus fits the Space Force's maneuver requirement

Orbital Operations is developing Astraeus, a reusable, high-thrust vehicle designed to remain in orbit before rapidly repositioning for satellite defense, payload hosting, and logistics missions. Orbital Operations says Astraeus will use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, an actively cooled cryogenic storage system, and a 10,000-pound-force engine.

The central engineering problem is keeping those cryogenic propellants cold for long periods in orbit. Conventional upper stages use them during comparatively short missions because heat causes propellant to boil off. Orbital Operations is betting that active cooling, turbomachinery, and heat exchangers can turn launch-vehicle propulsion into a system that can loiter for years and move across orbital regimes on demand.

That design maps directly onto the challenge's spacecraft-bus track. SpaceWERX is seeking highly maneuverable systems with high delta-v, adaptable payload interfaces, onboard power for edge computing, autonomous navigation, and improved thermal management. The solicitation covers operations from low Earth orbit through geosynchronous, extended geosynchronous, and cislunar space.

SpaceWERX is buying feasibility work at this stage. Orbital Operations still has to demonstrate that its cooling system can control boil-off and that the propulsion architecture can deliver the promised combination of thrust, endurance, and reusability.

Two propulsion engineers move into Space Force procurement

Schleuniger began his propulsion career at NASA and later worked on SpaceX's Dragon program before joining Relativity Space. Orbital Operations says he owned the initial fluid-system design for Terran 1, qualified flight-termination valves, designed heat exchangers for the Aeon R engine, and later led integrated propulsion design and analysis.

Doherty worked at Aerojet Rocketdyne and Blue Origin before joining Relativity, where he led turbomachinery manufacturing work for the Aeon engines. Schleuniger and Doherty met while developing and qualifying Terran 1's flight-termination system, then worked together on turbomachinery and heat exchangers before starting Orbital Operations.

Orbital Operations joined Y Combinator's Winter 2025 batch. In August 2025, Orbital Operations announced an $8.8 million seed round led by Initialized Capital, with participation from Harpoon Ventures, DTX Ventures, Rebel Fund, TRAC, Immad Akhund, and other investors.

Orbital Operations said at the time that the capital would fund an engine test stand, a ground demonstration of its cryogenic propellant-management system, hiring, and expansion of its Long Beach facilities. Its YC profile also stated an intention to launch an operational vehicle by 2027.

The SpaceWERX selection creates a nearer government milestone. Orbital Operations must first turn Astraeus into a credible Space Force concept of operations, quantify the technical risks, and make the case for a Phase II prototype. The award brings a venture-backed propulsion thesis into a formal military development pathway, where mission fit and engineering evidence will determine whether Astraeus advances beyond feasibility work.