Houston-based space company Axiom Space closed a $350 million funding round as it prepares to launch one of its biggest commercial space projects in 2026.
The Series C round was led by the Saudi Arabia-based firm Aljazira Capital and South Korea-based Boryung Ltd., Axiom said Aug. 21. This funding takes Axiom’s total raised to $505 million, which the company said is second only to California-based SpaceX among private space companies, citing data from Pitchbook.
Axiom confirmed it plans to launch the first module of its Axiom Station project in 2026. The project will create a commercial free-flying space station, which will initially be attached to the International Space Station until the planned retirement of the ISS in 2031. Axiom Space is currently building its Houston Spaceport headquarters, which will be used to produce the Axiom Station.
In a response to Houston Inno's inquiry, an Axiom Space spokesperson said the raise would be used to enhance core capabilities, scale operations, and access research and development initiatives supporting priority programs, including Axiom Station and the company's spacesuit designs.
Aljazira Capital is a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabia-based Bank Aljazira. Its investment follows Axiom’s partnership with the the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the company's second private space mission, Axiom Mission 2. The partnership saw two Saudi astronauts join the four-person crew that traveled to the ISS.
Meanwhile, Boryung is a returning investor for Axiom Space. Boryung is investing to develop a space health ecosystem that can further new health technologies for use on Earth. Axiom Space CEO Michael Suffredini previously spoke about the company’s goals to establish a low-Earth-orbit economy that performs commercial research in space.
Axiom also confirmed it has landed $2.2 billion in customer contracts to date. The company highlighted its contracts with NASA to deliver extravehicular activity services projects, which are spacesuit designs adapted for spacewalking and moonwalking. Axiom Space recently completed a $228.5 billion contract from NASA for a spacesuit, which was revealed as the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or AxEMU, in March 2023.
Axiom’s suits for NASA will be used in the space agency’s planned Artemis III mission, which is set to launch in 2025 to take astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time in over 50 years. The mission will explore the region near the moon’s south pole, using an Orion spacecraft to bring the crew to the moon.
In other Houston space news, the Texas A&M University System last week approved the creation of the Texas A&M Space Institute and construction of a $200 million facility to house it near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Once completed, the facility is expected to include labs, shops, classrooms, meeting rooms, control rooms, dedicated spaces for astromaterial curation and sample research, and two large extraterrestrial testbeds.
The advances in Texas-based companies such as Axiom Space, SpaceX and Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR) — which recently went public — led professional services firm PriceWaterCoopers to rank the Lone Star State first in the nation in aerospace investment in a recent report.
On March 14, NASA announced that Axiom Mission 3 will launch no earlier than November 2023 and is expected to spend 14 days docked to the space station. Houston-based Axiom Space has partnered with SpaceX since 2021 for four commercial space missions, starting with last year's Axiom Mission 1.
According to Business in Texas, the aerospace, aviation and defense sector accounts for $3.8 billion in total wages and employs about 140,000 people in total. Locally, the Houston area is home to 500 companies and institutions that work in the aerospace, space and aviation sector.
