Hydrostatic journal bearings are ideal elements to replace roller bearings as rotor support elements in cryogenic lurbomachinery. These bearings will be used for primary space-power applications due to their long lifetime, low friction and wear, large load capacity, and direct stiffness and damping force coefficients. The performance characteristics of turbulent flow, orifice compensated, spherical hydrostatic journal bearings are presented. These bearings allow tolerance for shaft misalignment without force degradation and are able to support axial loads, thus providing a design configuration which could be used efficiently on high-performance turbomachinery.