Orbital Operations
Winter 2025High Thrust Space Vehicles for Satellite Defense
About Company
Orbital Operations is developing a high thrust, reusable space vehicle for satellite defense. We protect critical satellites, like GPS and Military communication satellites, from adversarial threats, like China and Russia. Our vehicle will use the exact same propulsion systems that launch vehicles have used for decades by implementing a cryogenic management system. This will give us over 100x the thrust or current in-space propulsion. Ross and I have over 15 years of combined aerospace experience across NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Relativity Space. We’ve worked side by side for more than 3.5 years developing propulsion systems, turbomachinery, and building our own respective engineering teams. 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
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.
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.