Episode 542: Axiom Space CEO Jonathan Cirtain on Building the Future of Low Earth Orbit

**SPEAKER_2** (0:12)
Welcome in to another episode of the Inside the ICE House Podcast. Today's guest is Jonathan Cirtain. He is the CEO of Axiom Space.
Jonathan, thanks so much for joining us Inside the ICE House, happy to have you here.

**Jonathan Cirtain** (0:23)
Great to be here, thanks for having me.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:25)
So Jonathan, when you look at the space ecosystem overall, I think it's clear that we are in a period of transformation, but also one where there are still gaps in infrastructure and challenges that need to be addressed. What do you see as those biggest challenges? Do you see them as challenges? How is Axiom Space positioning itself to solve them?

**Jonathan Cirtain** (0:45)
So there are a variety of different opportunities. I don't know that I would necessarily characterize them as challenges, but there are a variety of different opportunities that are emerging as the consequence of being able to transport infrastructure to space becomes more accessible.
So certainly with the larger launch vehicles that are coming from a variety of different providers, there's additional access to space. There's also additional orbits that you can get to. And so that's opening up a lot of different opportunities. So the opportunity here is how would you go about building out infrastructure? And what are the near term priorities around that infrastructure? And so my argument would be, first of all, we've maintained access to low Earth orbit for 25 years now with the International Space Station. We've demonstrated that we know how to live and work in space.
So we need to continue that legacy by building the replacement infrastructure necessary to maintain that human presence. So that's one thing. Another thing, the technologies evolved a lot since these things were originally launched and the supply chain has remained mature. So you can utilize the supply chain that exists and add additional technological capability to really make a huge go of access to low-earth orbit and what you can do in low-earth orbit with microgravity once you get there.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:11)
So if you see these as opportunities rather than as challenges, give us a little bit of an explainer on who Axiom Space is and how you are trying to take advantage of these opportunities.

**Jonathan Cirtain** (2:21)
Well, so Axiom Space is a company meant to develop the necessary capabilities for humanity to explore, live and develop production capabilities in low-earth orbit for the benefit of humans here on earth.
So we're building that necessary infrastructure to support that capabilities development. So you need a suit program, you need a station program, you need an astronaut program to have a fully vertically integrated services capability for that low-earth orbit human-enabled settlement. So we're building all that infrastructure. We've launched now four private astronaut missions, taken 12 paying customers to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Private Astronaut Mission solicitation. So we're well-versed in the astronaut program. The astronaut program also is a payloads program. This kind of gets lost sometimes, and perhaps Axiom does a poor job of advocating for itself in this regard. But we've taken 160 payloads to the International Space Station. And that is the work that the astronauts are doing. So we're both training astronauts how to go and live and work in space safely, but we're also developing the content that they take with them. So that's step number one. Step number two, you need a station of your own. The International Space Station is a great place to do R&D, but with 20 some odd nations all participating in it, and some of them not necessarily getting along so great, having a commercial enterprise on that is just not practical.
But a lot of lessons have been learned, and a lot of technology has been developed. And if you have a commercial owned and operated space station, you can convert research into manufacturing. So you need that necessary attribute. And then finally, the International Space, I think a couple of Russian cosmonauts might be doing an EVA, an extravehicular activity either yesterday or today to go out and attach a scientific instrument. It's not necessarily for maintenance all the time. Sometimes they go outside and they do things that have meaningful research and development value. So we have a suit for that, and that suit also is gonna be used in the Artemis program for our return to the moon.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:28)
And we're gonna talk a little bit about that suit, as well as the station, just a little bit later in our conversation. So all of these opportunities have arisen. Axiom Space has the opportunity, again, using that word, to take advantage of them. But how do you differentiate yourself among what has now become a lot of competitors trying to fight for the same spaces?