In this episode, Daniel Faber, CEO of Orbit Fab, a US-based company that is pioneering in-space refueling infrastructure, shares his journey from Tasmania to becoming a leader in the space economy’s refueling efforts. Additionally, we delve into:
- Orbit Fab’s mission and services
- The need for refueling capabilities
- The economics of fuel depots
- Viability of asteroid mining
And much more…
• Chapters •
00:00 – Intro
00:35 – Gas stations in space
01:44 – Daniel’s background
05:49 – Origins of Orbit Fab
10:46 – Initial customer base
11:48 – The demo mission
13:05 – How does Orbit Fab make money today?
14:26 – Working with launch providers
15:25 – Structuring contracts
20:25 – Do small satellites need refueling?
23:02 – Contracting with the DoD
24:11 – Partnership with Astroscale
26:27 – Findings from the demo mission
27:54 – RAFTI standardization
29:10 – The inflection point for refueling
34:30 – The competition
35:57 – Fundraising environment
39:07 – Milestones investors should watch for
39:58 – Viability of asteroid mining
44:53 – What Daniel would be building if he wasn’t building Orbit Fab
46:06 – Companies that excite Daniel
• Show notes •
Orbit Fab’s website — https://www.orbitfab.com/
Orbit Fab’s socials — https://twitter.com/OrbitFab
Daniel’s socials — https://twitter.com/_DanielFaber_
Mo’s socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam
Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace
Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes
• About us •
Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers.
Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)