Ross Doherty

Ross Doherty is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Orbital Operations, a space technology company based in Long Beach, California. Founded in 2023, the startup recently secured an $8.8 million seed round led by Initialized Capital and participated in the Y Combinator accelerator program. Operating from a 5,500-square-foot facility, the company is developing a high-thrust cryogenic space vehicle for national defense applications, targeting deployment by 2029. Before establishing Orbital Operations, Doherty spent nearly a decade in the aerospace sector, holding engineering roles at Blue Origin and Aerojet Rocketdyne. He subsequently served as Lead Turbomachinery Manufacturing Engineer at Relativity Space, managing the production of Aeon 1 turbopumps and the qualification of the Aeon R engine. His current focus centers on scaling manufacturing and test operations for orbital defense vehicles and rapid-response space mobility systems.