ORBES

ORBES (also presented as Orbital Exploration Systems; corporate entity Orbital Entertainment Supply Inc., a Delaware C-Corp based in California) is a space robotics company building autonomous robots for inspection, maintenance and filming of large space infrastructure, along with zero-gravity test rigs used to train those robots on Earth.

The company has two product lines. ORB is a free-flying robot designed to operate inside pressurized space stations, working alongside or in place of astronauts on tasks such as inspection, inventory and item logistics, and providing continuous filming and live monitoring; the company states it offloads roughly $300M per station per year of manual housekeeping work. Exo-ORB is the external counterpart: a roughly 12U, sub-26-kg escort spacecraft that flies about 10 to 20 meters from its host to perform close-up inspection with a high-resolution camera, providing a third-person view of stations, large infrastructure and national security satellites. Exo-ORB carries both electric and cold-gas propulsion to raise its orbit and maneuver around the host for imaging at any angle, and later iterations are planned with robotic arms for repairs and component replacement.

ORBES frames its approach as an alternative to conventional in-space servicing and manufacturing spacecraft that must launch separately and rendezvous on orbit, and to astronaut spacewalks, which the company and press coverage describe as complex, risky and expensive (NASA estimates an hour of ISS crew time at $130,000). Longer term, the company describes scaling toward EVA robotic assistants for autonomous construction and maintenance.

Founding story

ORBES was founded in 2024 on the premise that billions of dollars of new space infrastructure — including commercial space stations, orbital data centers and large solar-array structures — is being built without an affordable way to maintain it, and that robots should take on the most expensive and dangerous orbital work so humans can focus on research and problem solving.

Business model

ORBES develops and plans to sell robotic spacecraft and services for in-orbit inspection and maintenance, positioning its hardware to launch aboard customer infrastructure so that servicing capability is built into the host asset from the outset rather than provided by separately launched rendezvous vehicles. Prospective commercial engagement begins with letters of intent tied to customer demonstration missions, alongside pursuit of government/defense work.

Revenue is expected from supplying inspection and maintenance robots and related services to operators of large orbital infrastructure and to national security customers, with value framed as displacing costly astronaut and crew time and manual station upkeep.

Traction

As of 2025 the company had unveiled Exo-ORB, signed a letter of intent with Symphony Space for a demonstration flight in late 2027 or early 2028, planned an early-2027 ORB flight to the ISS, and reported work toward an Exo-ORB mission with the Space Force. It remained a pre-seed company with 1-10 employees and had received press coverage of its spacecraft unveiling.

Latest developments

ORBES unveiled Exo-ORB, its first inspection satellite, and simultaneously announced its first commercial mission via a letter of intent with Symphony Space to fly Exo-ORB on the Adagio Platform demo mission in late 2027 or early 2028. The company plans to fly its internal ORB spacecraft to the ISS in early 2027 to validate microgravity flight and study robotic-arm manipulation of station components, is working toward an Exo-ORB mission with the Space Force, and intends to introduce an upgraded Exo-ORB with robotic arms for missions beginning in 2028.