Illustration of in-space refueling of satellites. Credit: Orbit Fab
TOKYO — With a new chief executive and funding round, satellite refueling company Orbit Fab hopes to make the transition from technology development to operations.
The Colorado-based company announced July 7 that it hired Peter Shaper as its chief executive. Shaper has worked in private equity for three decades in roles that included serving as chief executive of satellite services companies CapRock Communications and Speedcast.
Shaper said in an interview that he was brought in by the company’s lead investor, Stride Capital, earlier this year as a member of the board when the company’s founding chief executive, Daniel Faber, announced he would step down. “As I learned more and more about the business, I got more excited about it and ended up starting what was going to be a board engagement into becoming the CEO,” he said.
What excited him was the prospect of taking the satellite refueling technology the company had developed and building it into a sustainable business. “The team has done the hard work. They have developed the technology,” he said. “The investor decided they would like me to come in and really commercialize things — go win contracts and become a commercial business — instead of just continuing to develop technology.”
