Orbit Fab has appointed Jeff Lints as chief commercial officer as the company prepares for its first commercial on-orbit refueling demonstration and deployment of its refueling spacecraft for flight qualification.
Who Is Jeff Lints?
Before joining Orbit Fab, Lints served as the founder and CEO of Fortius Metals, where he focused on commercializing advanced manufacturing technologies for space and defense applications, according to a press release published Thursday. He also held executive business development roles at venture-backed hardware and electronics companies serving customers within energy markets.
The executive earned a master’s degree in business administration from Cornell University and completed his mechanical engineering studies with a master’s from the University of Colorado Boulder and a bachelor’s from Clarkson University.
What Commercial Responsibilities Will Jeff Lints Oversee?
In his new role, Lints will oversee global commercial strategy, customer engagement and partner integration as the company shifts from development to scaled production and service delivery.
He will focus on driving market adoption of Orbit Fab’s RAFTI refueling port, short for Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface, and associated fuel supply services across commercial, civil and national security sectors as customers look to extend mission life and enable greater maneuverability.
Which Orbit Fab Refueling Technologies Are Moving Toward Flight Operations?
Orbit Fab has recently completed the flight qualification of GRIP, its active docking and refueling system, designed for RAFTI-enabled spacecraft. The company plans to launch GRIP in the fourth quarter of 2026 as part of its first commercial refueling demonstration mission, supporting the U.S. Space Force’s Tetra-5a and 5b vehicles.
The company is also advancing flight qualification of its first commercial fuel shuttle, with an initial launch targeted for early 2027.
Orbit Fab is developing refueling and docking systems compatible with chemical, electric and green propellants for operations in geosynchronous, low Earth and very low Earth orbits.
How Does Orbit Fab’s Partner Ecosystem Support Refueling Adoption?
The company recently signed a contract with Momentus to demonstrate RAFTI and the Podracer space domain awareness payload during an Air Force Research Laboratory-funded mission scheduled to launch no earlier than February 2026 aboard a SpaceX Transporter rideshare flight. That mission includes the first planned in-orbit test of the RAFTI interface.
