June 21, 2019, The Liberacy:- Orbit Fab, a 2-year-old startup becomes worlds first private company to supply water to the International Space Station. The US-based startup conducted an experiment name, “Furphy” for the successful transfer of water between two satellite platforms. This experiment by startup used methods that are considered as paving the way of satellite refueling in the future.
The complete process developed by the company was tested with the help of International Space Station, US National Laboratory and COO Kenneth Shields was the contracting agency of this experiment. The complete specifications of the test are not made available but, the startup has shown that common flexibilities are available for small space business technology.
The experiment was conducted by using water because, water is the most inherent propellant, and the company aims at developing further methods in supplying fuel to the satellites.
The technology will be very useful in reducing time and money wasted in refueling. The startup embeds the technology that was never conceived by the developers of International Space Station, but proved out to be helpful and working,
Such startups are paving a way in the commercial space business, that will eventually be the most helpful for established space agencies like SpaceX, NASA, and ISRO.