{"id":17065,"date":"2026-01-14T18:45:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/orbital-robotics-reaches-out-with-a-plan-to-build-robotic-arms-that-use-ai\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T18:45:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:45:43","slug":"orbital-robotics-reaches-out-with-a-plan-to-build-robotic-arms-that-use-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/orbital-robotics-reaches-out-with-a-plan-to-build-robotic-arms-that-use-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Orbital Robotics reaches out with a plan to build robotic arms that use AI"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Illustration:
An artist\u2019s conception shows a spacecraft with robotic arms preparing to grapple the Hubble Space Telescope. (Orbital Robotics Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A space startup founded by veterans of Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is recruiting partners in its quest to build robotic arms powered by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Founded in late 2024, Puyallup, Wash.-based Orbital Robotics is still in its infancy \u2014 but it has already raised about $310,000 in funding. Orbital Robotics CEO Aaron Borger told GeekWire that the company is working with a stealthy space venture on an orbital rendezvous project for the U.S. Space Force, with a series of missions scheduled in the next year and a half.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just the start: Borger and his teammates are trying to get traction for a plan that could give NASA\u2019s aging Hubble Space Telescope a much-needed boost.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked to get to the right people to talk to, both on the servicing side and on the mission side, and we\u2019re in conversations now on how we could work together on a collaborative mission,\u201d said Doug Kohl, Orbital Robotics\u2019 chief operating officer.<\/p>\n

Borger and Kohl both worked at Blue Origin until 2024, and then went on to create Orbital Robotics with fellow co-founders Riley Mark and Sohil Pokharna. Their advisers include Chris Sembroski, an engineer who went into orbit in 2021 for a privately funded philanthropic space mission known as Inspiration4 and later spent two and a half years at Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Members of the Orbital Robotics team \u2014 chief operating officer Doug Kohl, CEO Aaron Borger, engineer Sohil Pokharna and adviser Chris Sembroski \u2014 pose for a holiday portrait at last month\u2019s GeekWire Gala. (Orbital Robotics via LinkedIn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Orbital Robotics aims to focus on a key challenge looming for the next stage of the new space age: how to build spacecraft that can interact with other orbiting objects safely.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not as easy as it may sound, especially when you\u2019re trying to manipulate objects in space while obeying Newton\u2019s Third Law of Motion. When a robotic arm on a free-flying spacecraft moves around, the spacecraft itself reacts with an equal and opposite motion. The arm has to compensate for those movements as it reaches out to grab its target.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is exactly one of the hardest parts about putting robotic arms on spacecraft,\u201d Borger said. \u201cWhen you move the arm, your spacecraft is going to move as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

To address the challenge, Orbital Robotics is developing a suite of AI-based software tools designed to track targets in space, plan out orbital maneuvers and interact with other spacecraft. It\u2019s also laying the groundwork for robotic arms and spacecraft that make use of its technology. \u201cA lot of NASA engineers will say you can\u2019t use AI because you can\u2019t really predict what it\u2019s going to do, but with our method, we can,\u201d Borger said.<\/p>\n

\"Orbital
Orbital Robotics\u2019 prototype robotic arm, known as ORA-T1, has seven degrees of freedom. (Orbital Robotics Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Earlier in their careers, Borger and Mark were involved in efforts to put small AI-controlled robotic arms through suborbital testing. Now Orbital Robotics has built a larger prototype arm with seven degrees of freedom. For the next few months, the company will be putting that hardware through its paces in its lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose smaller arms were designed to catch, like, a ball or a cube. We had a small 3D-printed wrench that we were focused on,\u201d Borger said. \u201cThis one is more focused on how you dock with space debris, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ability to inspect or link up with objects in space has obvious implications for national security in space, which is why the Pentagon is so interested in the technology. Borger declined to discuss that side of Orbital Robotics\u2019 business plan, but he noted that there are commercial applications as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that there\u2019s the ability to put so much mass up there, it\u2019s come to the point where, OK, you have all this stuff up there. How do you actually continue to use it, rather than just letting it come down or die up there?\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want to refuel something, if you want to repair something, the first step is, how do you capture it? That\u2019s what we\u2019re really focused on right now. \u2026 Then we can start focusing on using our robotic arms to manipulate things, start refilling it, repairing it, all sorts of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orbital Robotics recently tested its tracking software using video footage that was captured during an earlier suborbital test mission. Now the team is collaborating with a stealth partner on a series of space missions. The first mission would test Orbital Robotics\u2019 flight software. Later missions would test the company\u2019s robotic arm and demonstrate its ability to capture a spacecraft in orbit. Borger said it would be premature to disclose the partner\u2019s identity, but he mentioned a 2026-2027 time frame for the missions.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a growing interest in orbital rendezvous, proximity operations and capture, or RPOC for short \u2014 and Orbital Robotics isn\u2019t the only space company targeting that market. Starfish Space and Portal Space Systems are among other Seattle-area ventures on the RPOC frontier. <\/p>\n

Borger said he prefers to think of such companies as potential partners rather than rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they could use our arms,\u201d he said. \u201cThey could use some of our software.\u201d The company has already announced partnerships with Redmond, Wash.-based Starcloud and Texas-based Space Ocean.<\/p>\n

Orbital Robotics is also recruiting partners for an effort to save the 35-year-old Hubble Space Telescope from a fiery, mission-ending descent. Kohl said he and his collaborators are working on a white paper about the project that would be reviewed by NASA experts as well as astronauts who participated in previous Hubble servicing missions.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Orbital Robotics has drawn up a concept for a spacecraft equipped with robotic arms that could attach itself to the Hubble Space Telescope and boost it to a higher, more stable orbit. (Orbital Robotics Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The plan calls for building a robotic spacecraft that could attach itself to the telescope, install a star tracker package on its exterior, boost Hubble to a more stable orbit, and then undock.<\/p>\n

Several years ago, tech billionaire Jared Isaacman was trying to get NASA interested in a crewed Hubble reboost mission. In 2024, the space agency decided not to take him up on his proposal \u2014 but now that Isaacman is NASA\u2019s administrator, Kohl is hoping that the public-private consortium he\u2019s trying to assemble, known as the \u201cSave the Hubble Space Telescope Alliance,\u201d will get a warmer reception.<\/p>\n

\u201cJared is as interested in Hubble as we are, and so we\u2019re hoping to take an unsolicited proposal to him with the white paper on helping to recover Hubble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The clock is ticking: Last week, a team of scientists reported that Hubble could fall to its doom in as little as three or four years, due to increased atmospheric drag caused by heightened solar activity. \u201cEven though it would come in around 2030, we actually need to save it before that,\u201d Borger said. \u201cThe longer you wait, the more difficult it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for Orbital Robotics as well. Borger acknowledged that it\u2019s going to take more funding to fuel the venture\u2019s grand ambitions. \u201cWe\u2019re OK with where we\u2019re at on funding for now, and then we\u2019ll go for a much larger round in a couple of months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Correction:<\/strong> Orbital Robotics has raised a total of $310,000 to date, including $110,000 from a friends-and-family funding round that was completed in November. An earlier version of this report didn\u2019t reflect earlier investments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows a spacecraft with robotic arms preparing to grapple the Hubble Space Telescope. (Orbital Robotics Illustration) A space startup founded by veterans of Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is recruiting partners in its quest to build robotic arms powered by artificial intelligence. Founded in late 2024, Puyallup, Wash.-based Orbital Robotics is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[293,130,898,4391,4392,4335,4329],"class_list":["post-17065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-hubble-space-telescope","tag-orbital-robotics","tag-robot-arm","tag-robotics","tag-startups"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}