/etc/init.d/orbited needs to be corrected, because --daemon option does not work for RHEL5 (orbited does not listen to desired port). Here what is needed:
Edit /etc/init.d/orbited and :
1. add
ORBITED="nohup /usr/bin/orbited > /dev/null 2>&1 &"
to the very beginning of the script, just below "lockfile=<bla>" line
2. modify "start" subroutine to use $ORBITED variable instead of --daemon switch. It should look like this :
daemon --check $prog $ORBITED
Enjoy your *working* "/sbin/service/orbited start" command ! Functionality could be verified by trying lsof -i :[your desired port], (e.g. ":9000") - it should display "orbited"