Orbit Fab finalises new RAFTI High Pressure refuelling interface
[Harwell, England – 6th October 2026]
Orbit Fab has completed qualification of RAFTI High Pressure (RAFTI HP), a new European variant of its successful RAFTI refuelling interface. RAFTI HP means any satellites using electric or chemical propulsion can now be refuelled with Orbit Fab technology.
Orbit Fab, the in-orbit logistics company pioneering space sustainability and dynamic space operations, has completed qualification of RAFTI® High Pressure (RAFTI HP), a new European variant of its widely adopted refuelling interface, under funding from the UK Space Agency. RAFTI HP has passed the industry-standard environmental, pressure, leak and functional test campaigns needed to qualify it for use with the common electric propulsion propellants xenon, krypton and argon alongside the self-pressurising chemical propellants nitrous oxide and ethane. The first unit will fly to orbit on a demonstrator mission named “Shilling” in late 2026.
RAFTI HP was designed, built and qualified by Orbit Fab’s UK team at Harwell, giving satellite manufacturers and operators a European-developed refuelling interface they can design into their platforms with confidence. It replaces a satellite’s conventional, single-use fill and drain valve with an interface which supports both ground fuelling and refuelling in orbit. The original RAFTI, designed for lower pressure propellants like hydrazine, is already baselined on a growing number of satellites and the qualification of RAFTI HP extends that capability to high-pressure propulsion systems with the addition of this European developed technology. Together, the two RAFTI variants give spacecraft designers a single, reliable refuelling option regardless of which propulsion system is used. This means the RAFTI, as a low-cost drop-in replacement for a satellite’s standard fill-and-drain valves, can be added to almost any satellite being built today and make it ready for refuelling.
Built for the electric propulsion era
Electric propulsion has become a popular most common choice for satellite propulsion, and noble gases such as xenon, krypton and argon are now widely used across commercial constellations. RAFTI HP was designed from the outset to serve this market, and to address the growing use of self-pressurising chemical propellants. Rated to a maximum expected operating pressure (MEOP) of 345 bar (5,000 psi), it acts as a drop-in replacement for a satellite’s standard fill-and-drain valves or an additional valve if required. Customers can use it for ground fuelling today and be ready for in-orbit refuelling tomorrow – with minimal additional cost, mass, volume or complexity.
Qualified through UK Space Agency funding
RAFTI HP was qualified under SPITFIRE, a programme funded by the UK Space Agency’s National Space Innovation Programme and completed by Orbit Fab’s UK team in Harwell, Oxfordshire. Testing was carried out at Orbit Fab’s fluids laboratory in Harwell alongside UK partners the University of Southampton, MDA UK, Satellite Applications Catapult and the University of Surrey.
On its way to orbit with Shilling
RAFTI HP will be tested on orbit as part of Orbit Fab’s Shilling in-orbit demonstration, due to fly in late 2026. Named in honour of Beatrice “Tilly” Shilling OBE, the British engineer who solved a critical fuel-flow problem in the Spitfire’s engine during the Second World War, the Shilling payload carries a flight unit of RAFTI HP along with the xenon and instrumentation needed to confirm how RAFTI HP performs in space.
Jacob Geer, Managing Director of Orbit Fab in Europe, said: “Satellites don’t retire because their hardware fails – they retire because they run out of fuel. With RAFTI HP qualified and available to order, operators flying electric propulsion or self-pressurising chemical systems no longer have to accept that limit. One interface now covers the propellants that power the vast majority of today’s small satellites, and it was designed, built and qualified here in the Europe.
We’re grateful to the UK Space Agency for backing SPITFIRE so we can develop a European interface and we’re ready to start delivering RAFTI HP to customers now. This is another step towards retiring the single-use satellite and giving our customers’ satellites new options for longer life, enhanced manoeuvrability and entirely new business models.”
Ordering RAFTI HP
RAFTI HP is available to order now. Satellite manufacturers, propulsion system integrators and operators interested in integrating RAFTI HP should contact Orbit Fab at www.orbitfab.com/contact or learn more at www.orbitfab.com/rafti.
About Orbit Fab
Orbit Fab has the infrastructure to make it easy for any satellite to be refuelled in orbit. With missions to the International Space Station, a prototype orbital fuel station sent to orbit and multiple upcoming refuelling demonstration missions (flying in the next two years, the company can deliver fuel to multiple client satellites at various stages in development that are now equipped with the RAFTI refuelling interface. RAFTI can replace traditional satellite service valves for ground fuelling, meaning minimal additional cost, weight, volume, or complexity for the client spacecraft. It is available under an open license and is becoming the de facto industry standard satellite refuelling interface.
Orbit Fab is headquartered in Colorado with its European base in in the UK.
Learn more at www.orbitfab.com.
Media Contact:
Ms Calypso Kulasegram
contact-uk@orbitfab.com
+44 (0)7 3936 25870
