Roadmap · Clearable when standards lock
Propellant and ISAM. Roadmap, not live wedge.
Tier
Roadmap
Standards window
2027-2028
2030 addressable spend
$3B
Settlement (when live)
T+event · forward
Why this is roadmap, not live wedge
The market is real. The cleared market is not — yet.
GAO's July 2025 report on in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing described the situation directly: “potential ISAM service providers are hesitant to develop the technology into servicing products until there is a user base. Similarly, potential users are hesitant to design and deploy satellites that can be serviced until those products are available.”That is not Wavestar's problem to solve — it is the industry's. The clearing layer arrives after the contract specifications stabilise, not before.
The marquee government demonstrators have been retrenched. NASA cancelled OSAM-1 and OSAM-2 due to changing priorities and budget overruns. Commercial ISAM remains on manifest: Starfish Space's Otter offers GEO relocation services from 2026; MRV begins servicing unprepared clients in 2026; Astroscale plans the ELSA-M debris-removal demonstration in 2026. The supply side is forming. The standardisation that enables a cleared market lags it.
The standardisation work is the gating factor. CONFERS is publishing best practices. ISO/DIS 24330 is in committee. Industry tracking expects grapple-fixture standards to lock within two to three years. Qualified suppliers who move early have a structural advantage when the standards solidify — which is exactly the moment a clearing house can meaningfully list standardised forwards.
Potential ISAM service providers are hesitant to develop the technology into servicing products until there is a user base. Potential users are hesitant to design and deploy satellites that can be serviced until those products are available.
What you trade
Physical delivery to a named orbit slot.
- 01
Unit of trade · Propellant
1 kg of named propellant — hydrazine, Xe, LMP-103S, H2O2, Kr — delivered to a named slot (orbit, RAAN, mean-anomaly window) within a named window. - 02
Unit of trade · ISAM
A named service — inspection, relocation, life-extension docking, refuelling, module install, debris de-orbit — against an acceptance specification with a verified-completion attestation. - 03
Delivery attestation
Attest reads attitude and RPO telemetry from both depot and client spacecraft, reconciles against independent SSA tracks, and issues a signed claim that docking occurred and N kg transferred or specified service completed. - 04
Force-majeure handling
Solar-proton events, uncontrolled-debris conjunctions, and attitude-control anomalies at either spacecraft trigger a force-majeure window. External insurance covers the physical leg; Wavestar settles contractually per rulebook exhibit 4.8.4. - 05
Staged escrow
Propellant: full cash at signing, released on delivery. ISAM services: 30% on contract signing, 40% on RPO commencement, 30% on attested completion. Servicer draws on milestones. - 06
Acceptance specification
Every ISAM service carries an acceptance spec — required telemetry fields, tolerance bands, completion conditions. Acceptance or rejection is a signed act, mirrored into the registry.
Contract specification
Propellant (PROP) · Rulebook exhibit 4.8.4.
PROP · Forward contract
- Ticker
- PROP · [servicer] · [orbit-class] · [window]
- Unit of trade
- 1 kg named propellant delivered to named orbit slot
- Propellant types
- Hydrazine · Xe · Kr · LMP-103S · H2O2 · CFC-11
Non-storable propellants (e.g., LOX/LCH4 stage recovery) not supported in v1.
- Tick size
- $50 per kg
- Minimum block
- 25 kg
Matches the smallest depot-initiated transfer in observed Orbit Fab missions.
- Delivery window
- Named ±3 days on contract; ±12 hours on docking handshake
- Delivery attestation
- Depot + client RPO telemetry + SSA reconciliation + mass-change signature
- Settlement
- T+event · atomic on delivery · USDC primary · Fedwire / SWIFT optional
- Initial margin
- 20%
Reflects multi-month forward exposure and physical delivery risk.
- Variation margin band
- 5%
Weekly mark on forward-curve midpoint across active servicers.
- Insurance pass-through
- Required · external carrier
Wavestar does not underwrite physical risk; servicers evidence coverage at contract signing.
- Position limit
- 20% of cleared open interest per servicer
Higher than cash markets given thin near-term roster of servicers.
Servicers
The on-manifest roster for 2026–2028.
- ORB
Orbit Fab
Gas stations in space. Published per-kg hydrazine delivery service. First-to-clear on the propellant book. - NGC
Northrop Grumman · MEV / MRV
Operational track record in GEO life-extension. Transition from bespoke RFP to cleared forward contracts enables secondary pricing. - AST
Astroscale
End-of-life, inspection, and life-extension services in LEO and GEO. Public contracts with ESA, UK Space Agency, and JAXA. - IMP
Impulse Space
Mira and Helios OTVs for payload hosting, orbit raising, and last-mile delivery. Re-characterised on Wavestar as orbital-slot transport contracts. - KMR
Kall-Morris
Debris remediation and rendezvous services. Primary underwriter of the ISAM market's forward curve in the debris category. - LAB
In-space-assembly specialists
Laboratory-grade structural assembly demonstrated; contract structures in v2 graduate from RFQ to standardised forward once acceptance specs stabilise.
Forward-curve mechanics
Physical delivery forwards with a weekly mark.
Reference price · hydrazine · LEO
$50,000 / kg
Rolling 30-day cleared-forward midpoint; draws from Orbit Fab list pricing reconciled with actual deliveries.
Forward tenor range
60 to 540 days
Contracts longer than 540 days require servicer-rated collateral top-ups per rulebook §9.10.
Open interest · PROP
420 kg
Design-partner month-18 target. 2030 steady-state > 40,000 kg.
Default fund tranche
$75M
Class III tranche of the Wavestar default fund. Cover-2 sized against the two largest servicer exposures.
Regulatory context
Servicing, not spectrum — but ITAR is the gate.
- ITAR / EAR
- Servicer is licence-holder
Wavestar is infrastructure. Servicer certifies compliant licensing at member onboarding; Wavestar screens counterparties against OFAC and end-use lists per /compliance/sanctions.
- FAA AST Part 450
- Launch and re-entry of servicer stages
Applies to the servicer's own launch and return segments; cleared forward contracts do not alter FAA responsibilities.
- Debris mitigation
- ODMSP and ISO 24113 compliance evidenced at registration
Servicers demonstrate post-mission disposal plans aligned with U.S. Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices before listing.
- Insurance
- Lloyd's and Starr Aviation carrier panel
Physical-risk insurance underwritten externally; Wavestar does not carry balance-sheet insurance liability.
- Wavestar clearing status
- CFTC DCO · forward on physical commodity
ISAM forwards clear under Form 7-R as physical-commodity forwards. Filing status at /regulatory/cftc-dco.
The contract architecture matters now, even if the cleared market lives later. Suppliers who move early when standards lock have a structural advantage we want to be standing underneath.
Roadmap status · 2027-2028 standards window
The contract architecture is current. The cleared book opens when standards lock.
The forward-contract specifications above are kept current as part of our roadmap work. Servicers tracking grapple-fixture standardisation can review the contract architecture in advance. The cleared market opens when standardisation is complete.