Axiom Space, Inc.

Who owns Axiom Space?
Axiom Space is a private company owned by its founders, employees, and investors including MUFG Bank and strategic partners. Kam Ghaffarian is executive chairman and Jonathan Cirtain is president and CEO.

Is Axiom Space publicly traded?
No. Axiom Space is privately held. It has raised more than $525 million in its most recent financing round closed June 2026.

How many missions has Axiom flown?
Four private astronaut missions to the ISS: Ax-1 (April 2022), Ax-2 (May 2023), Ax-3 (January 2024), and Ax-4 (June 2025). Ax-5 is targeted for January 2027.

What is Axiom Station?
Axiom Station is a modular commercial space station intended to succeed the ISS. Its first modules, built by Thales Alenia Space, are planned to attach to the ISS initially, then detach and operate independently.

Where is Axiom Space headquartered?
Axiom Space is headquartered at 1290 Hercules Avenue in Houston, Texas, adjacent to the Johnson Space Center area.

Axiom Space was founded in 2016 in Houston by Kam Ghaffarian, the engineer-entrepreneur who co-founded Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, and Michael Suffredini, who spent three decades at NASA including a decade as International Space Station program manager. The founding premise was that a commercially operated station could preserve and grow human presence in low Earth orbit as the ISS aged.

The company announced its station plan publicly and won a NASA NextSTEP contract in 2020 providing port access to the ISS for its first module. In April 2022 it flew Ax-1, the first all-private astronaut mission to the ISS, with commander Michael Lopez-Alegria leading three paying customers on a 17-day flight. Ax-2 followed in May 2023, Ax-3 in January 2024 with an all-European government-sponsored crew, and Ax-4 in June 2025 carrying astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary.

Alongside missions, Axiom built out its spacesuit business, winning NASA's xEVAS task order in 2022 to develop the AxEMU suit for Artemis III, and advanced Axiom Station with module construction underway in Italy by Thales Alenia Space.

Capital raises accelerated through 2025 and 2026: a $350 million financing followed by a June 2026 close of more than $525 million that was oversubscribed, adding MUFG Bank as a new investor and bringing Voyager Technologies in as a mission teammate. The company also redomiciled to Texas in 2026, consolidating operations around its Houston headquarters.

Axiom has drawn scrutiny over workforce reductions as it declined from a 2024 headcount peak of roughly 1,270 employees to about 900 in 2026, reflecting a pivot from growth spending to program delivery. No major regulatory or safety controversies are on record; its four missions all completed safely.