The Houston Spaceport’s newest facility — the Axiom Space Assembly Integration and Test Building — is open for business.
In addition to serving as Houston-based Axiom Space’s new headquarters, the building will also be the assembly hub for the company's long-term project, the Axiom Station, which has been billed as the world’s first private free-flying space station. Axiom co-founder and CEO Michael Suffredini commented on the significance of manufacturing the space station in Houston during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Dec. 7.
“Axiom Station will be the first human-rated spacecraft ever constructed in the Space City, and it will happen in this building at the Houston Spaceport,” Suffredini said. “We are on track to launch and attach our first module to the International Space Station by 2026.”
The Axiom Station is projected to replace the ISS upon the latter's planned retirement in 2031, according to Axiom Space and NASA.
Suffredini confirmed that further phases will include astronaut training centers, a mission control center, and engineering and development labs in addition to the Axiom Station production bays. The Houston Business Journal previously reported the full campus, which broke ground last year, will span 22 acres at the Spaceport.
Axiom Space aims to corner the low-Earth-orbit market, and Suffredini previously said Houston was a prime location for the next developments in commercial spaceflight, including research, manufacturing and space tourism.
"The local economy is affected significantly because not only will there be jobs, but the amount of research and manufacturing that will take place over time will start to focus around the Houston area as well," Suffredini said during a press conference in April. "There's a lot of testing and demonstration you have to do before you fly a system or [produce] a product, whatever that product might be."
While development of the Axiom Station continues, Axiom Space has been flying researchers to the ISS as part of a collaboration with California-based SpaceX. The second mission — Axiom Mission 2 — was completed earlier this year, while Axiom Mission 3 is set to launch no earlier than January 2024.
Axiom Space tapped international partners for both missions — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent two astronauts aboard Ax-2, while researchers from Italy, Turkey and Sweden will join Ax-3.
Back on Earth, the company has also seen major recent investor interest. Following Ax-2’s completion, Saudi Arabia-based Aljazira Capital and South Korea-based Boryung Ltd. led a $350 million Series C round for Axiom Space in August. According to Pitchbook, the funding pushed Axiom just behind SpaceX in terms of capital raised by private space companies, and the round was the largest in Texas in the third quarter of 2023.
The company also added to its leadership team after the round, bringing in aerospace executive Mike Lungiarello to succeed West Griffin as CFO.
Axiom’s campus is the latest infrastructure development for the Houston Spaceport’s three anchor tenants, which also include Houston-based Intuitive Machines Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR) and North Carolina-based Collins Aerospace, a division of Virginia-based RTX Corp. (NYSE: RTX). Collins opened its 120,000-square-foot facility in 2022, while Intuitive Machines opened a $40 million production center in September 2023.
Houston Airport System Director Mario Diaz acknowledged the city’s strides in the private spaceflight sector — including the development of the Spaceport and its tenants — during an event hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership last month.
