Refueling the Space Economy, with Daniel Faber (Orbit Fab)

Pathfinder

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/)