WASHINGTON — Gravitics, a company developing commercial space station modules, has won a Space Force award to leverage that technology for tactically responsive space.
Gravitics announced March 26 it received a Strategic Funding Increase, or STRATFI, award from SpaceWERX, the commercial outreach arm of the Space Force, worth up to $60 million. Defense agencies provide up to $30 million in a STRATFI agreement, with matching private funds by the company.
Gravitics said the STRATFI will support work on Orbital Carrier, a derivative of commercial space station modules that the company has been working on. The spacecraft would carry multiple “maneuverable space vehicles” that could be deployed in orbit in response to threats.
“The Orbital Carrier is a game-changer, acting as a pre-positioned launch pad in space,” said Colin Doughan, chief executive of Gravitics, in a statement. “It bypasses traditional launch constraints, enabling space vehicle operators to rapidly select a deployment orbit on-demand.”
Gravitics said the STRATFI award will allow the company to “develop and demonstrate the Orbital Carrier platform, paving the way for its integration into the Space Force’s future space architecture.”
Gravitics was founded to develop modules for commercial space stations but has looked to other markets for its technologies. The company won a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from SpaceWERX in April 2024 to apply its technologies for tactically responsive space applications, but did not go into details at the time about those efforts.
The company remains interested in commercial space station work. The company signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA in June 2024 to assist in verification and validation plans for large modules, ranging from four to eight meters in diameter.
In July, Gravitics announced a $125 million contract with Axiom Space for a module that would play a “utility role” in Axiom’s commercial space station. The companies did not provide details about the spacecraft or a timeline for its development.
Gravitics was one of eight companies that won STRATFI awards from SpaceWERX at an event in Austin, Texas, March 8.
