Gravitics 4 meter space station module design pathfinder for developing manufacturing and assembly methods.
Gravity
Washington-based startup Gravitics has signed a $125 million contract to expand Axiom Space’s planned space station, the latest deal in the burgeoning private market for orbital habitats.
“It’s an exciting development to partner with the space station operator who is the fastest to put hardware into orbit,” Colin Doughan, CEO and founder of Gravitics, told CNBC.
axiom It is one of several companies that NASA plans to build private space stations when the International Space Station ends its orbit. Axiom’s space station module has been built by Italian aerospace contractor Thales Alenia. The Gravitics order adds another “pressurized spacecraft” planned to connect to the Axiom space station upon launch two years later.
The agreement Axiom signed with Gravitics in 2021 is the startup’s most significant agreement to date. Gravitics has previously raised a total of $20 million in venture capital as it looks to become a private space station manufacturer.
The nearly 50-employee company, located in a northern suburb of Seattle, aims to offer space station modules — essentially orbital habitat construction modules — as a line of plug-and-play products that can be mounted on a variety of rockets. launch, whether it is a flight currently flying, e.g. SpaceX Falcon 9 or future behemoths such as blue origin new glen.
Gravitics is designing space station modules with diameters ranging from 3 meters (9 feet) to 8 meters (26 feet). The company claims the largest module will have “the largest internal volume of any independent spacecraft” and will be called “StarMax,” a name inspired by Courtesy of SpaceX’s towering Starship rocket.
“We looked at Starship first and said, ‘Someone is going to maximize the payload capacity,'” Doughan said.
Currently, NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program has awarded development contracts to companies building space stations in order to Vandalism of the International Space Station at the end of the century. Axiom is the first company to win a NASA contract to build a space station module, and Gravitics will attach its spacecraft later this decade.
But Doughan said the Gravitics deal is not exclusive.
“We would like to be able to participate in multiple teams for (CLD Phase 2) rather than being the main (bidder) because we have zero interest in operations… but I do expect you will start to see some structure It reflects that some of (our space station mods) have been incorporated into some of these designs moving forward,” Dorn said.
Gravitics has been working on prototypes and testing key parts, such as test-firing prototypes of its propulsion system and pressure-testing modules. Dorn said Gravitics will transport some components to the International Space Station for testing later this year and plans to launch a small spacecraft by 2026.
The propulsion system is being test-fired at the Gravitics facility in Marysville, Washington.
Gravity
“We’re a very hardware-rich company, so we’re building as we complete the design,” Dorn said.
The company signed an agreement with NASA for new ways to test large spacecraft, as well as an early-stage Space Force development contract. Doughan emphasized that the latter contract represents Gravitics “working with customers who are ready to buy.”
“The Space Force budget has exceeded NASA’s budget and that’s not going to stop,” Duane said.
Doughan said the Axiom deal was a catalyst for growth for Gravitics, which plans to double its headcount and launch a new round of funding in the coming months.
