{"id":466945,"date":"2026-02-11T00:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466945\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T00:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:52:12","slug":"spaceium-demonstrates-refueling-actuator-in-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466945\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaceium demonstrates refueling actuator in orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Spaceium, a startup planning to establish a network of in-space refueling and repair stations, demonstrated the actuator for its robotic arm in space. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Extensive testing of Spaceium\u2019s actuator, which flew on <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/transporter-15-rideshare-mission-launches-140-payloads\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Transporter-15<\/a>, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare launched in November, confirmed its accuracy.\u201cWe tested the actuator first, because our technology revolves around how precisely we can transfer fuel,\u201d Ashi Dissanayake, Spaceium co-founder and CEO, told SpaceNews.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur refueling actuator achieved a verified 0.003 degree rotation accuracy in orbit,\u201d Dissanayake said. \u201cWhen paired with a [five-meter] robotic arm, that level of precision would translate to less than a millimeter of movement at the far end. That degree of control has never been demonstrated in space before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spaceium, founded in 2023, is a U.S. company with a Canadian subsidiary. After completing the Y Combinator startup accelerator in 2024, the startup <a href=\"https:\/\/spaceium.com\/spaceium-closes-6-3m-seed-round-to-build-refueling-stations-in-space\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">raised $6.3 million<\/a> in a 2025 seed round.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn just five months, two founders built and flew the most precise robotic actuator ever tested in orbit \u2013 over 70x more accurate than the robotic arms currently operating in space,\u201d Spaceium said in a Feb. 10 blog post.<\/p>\n<p>A second Spaceium mission is scheduled to fly later this year. And within two to three years, Spaceium will be operating the first of a network of refueling stations in multiple orbits,\u201d Dissanayake said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"423\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/rsz_spaceium_cropped.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-572229\"  \/>Render of Spaceium\u2019s vehicle for in-orbit refueling and repair of spacecraft.  Credit: Spaceium<\/p>\n<p>Competitive Pricing<\/p>\n<p>Spaceium seeks to offer an inexpensive option for orbital transfer vehicles and spacecraft destined for the moon or Mars. Spacecraft will travel to Spaceium stations in low-Earth orbit to obtain cryogenic or noncryogenic fuel to extend their range.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can store from 10 metric tons to 30 metric tons for up to 10 years in orbit,\u201d Dissanayake said. \u201cBecause of that our prices are really competitive in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Longer-term Spaceium stations will offer spacecraft inspection and repair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut that\u2019s obviously not something we are focusing on right now, because refueling is a huge market and we want to tackle that first,\u201d Dissanayake said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Spaceium, a startup planning to establish a network of in-space refueling and repair stations, demonstrated&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,66,6089,306,178000,190465,2927],"class_list":{"0":"post-466945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-sn","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-space-logistics","14":"tag-spaceium","15":"tag-startups"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}