Orbital Operations, fresh out of Y Combinator Spring ’25, just locked down an $8.8M seed round to prove they’re not just in the game, they’re designing it. Led by Initialized Capital and backed by Harpoon Ventures, DTX Ventures, Rebel Fund, TRAC VC, and Immad Akhund, this raise isn’t about building something flashy. It’s about building something necessary, for national security, orbital logistics, and any satellite system trying to survive in an era where space isn’t empty, it’s contested.
The founders, Benjamin Schleuniger (CEO) and Ross Doherty (CTO), aren’t cosplaying as rocket scientists. They are rocket scientists, with years of deep engineering at Relativity Space, SpaceX, NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Blue Origin. They met at Relativity working on the Terran-1 flight termination system and bonded over a mutual obsession: cryogenic propellants. The kind that get cranky and boil off before they’re ready to party. Their solution? A reusable cryogenic propulsion management system (CPMS) with a real-deal reverse Brayton cycle loop, active cooling for LH2 and LOX that lets their orbital vehicles wait, loiter, and then light up with >10,000 lbf thrust on-demand.
In a world where defense missions still run on bureaucratic lag and orbital platforms are lucky to stay stable for days, Orbital Operations is handing the U.S. Space Force a tool that can stay cold, hang tight, and strike fast, on timelines measured in hours, not months.
They’re already stacking wins: early validation work with the U.S. Space Force, a letter of support from NASA, a terrestrial demonstrator already cooling propellant like it’s sipping whiskey in a cryo-cabana, and a test stand rising fast in Long Beach. By year’s end, they’ll be cold-flow testing. By mid-2026, we’re talking hot-fire engine tests and a qualified CPMS platform ready to orbit like it means something.
It’s rare to see a startup this early already orbiting the attention of the DoD and Space Force. Rarer still to see tech this gnarly get built outside the legacy primes. But Orbital Operations isn’t playing that game. They’re building the infrastructure for a space economy that doesn’t flinch, doesn’t wait, and doesn’t need permission to move.
