Washington-based startup Gravitics has secured a $125 million contract with Axiom Space to help expand its upcoming space station, marking a significant milestone in the growing private market for orbital habitats. Gravitics aims to become a leading manufacturer of private space station modules, boasting designs that offer the “largest interior volume in a standalone spacecraft,” according to the company.
“We’re a very hardware-rich company, so we’re building at the same time we’re finalizing design,” said Colin Doughan, Gravitics CEO and founder.
This partnership with Axiom Space, which plans to launch its space station in two years, is an exciting development for Gravitics. “Working with the station operator that will have hardware on orbit soonest is an exciting development,” Doughan added.
Axiom Space is among several companies developing private space stations as NASA prepares to decommission the International Space Station. Axiom already has modules for its station being built by Italian aerospace contractor Thales Alenia. The new Gravitics module will add another “pressurized spacecraft” to Axiom’s station.
Founded in 2021, Gravitics has quickly made a name for itself in the industry, raising a total of $20 million in venture funding. The company, with nearly 50 employees based in a northern suburb of Seattle, aims to provide modular space station components that can be launched on various rockets, including SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and future rockets like Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
Gravitics’ space station modules range from 3 meters (9 feet) to 8 meters (26 feet) in diameter. The largest module, named StarMax, will have the “largest interior volume in a standalone spacecraft,” inspired by SpaceX’s towering Starship rocket.
“We started by looking at Starship and saying, ‘Someone is going to maximize that payload volume,’” Doughan explained.
