The first phase of the Houston convention district's transformation includes the addition of GRB South, a new 700,000-square-foot convention facility. Rendering courtesy Houston First.

Mayor John Whitmire and Houston First Corporation shared a new master plan for the George R. Brown Convention Center and its surrounding area last week. The plan features expanded exhibition space, a living roof, a pedestrian plaza with access to Toyota Center and more.

The project will be funded by the state’s portion of incremental Hotel Occupancy Tax revenue growth within a three-mile radius of the GRB for 30 years, which is estimated to total about $2 billion, according to a release from Houston First.

The first phase of the project, which is slated to be completed by 2028, will focus on developing a 700,000-square-foot convention facility known as GRB South.

GRB South will feature:

  • Two exhibition halls, totaling 150,000 square feet
  • A 50,000-square-foot multipurpose hall that opens to the new Central Plaza
  • The 100,000-square-foot Central Plaza, an extension of the Avenida Plaza that will connect to Discovery Green and Toyota Center
  • Atrium flex hall totaling 25,000 square feet
  • 225,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space
  • A 60,000-80,000-square-foot ballroom
  • Ground-level spaces for retail and restaurants
  • A central atrium, providing each level with natural light

The design of the space is inspired by the Houston area's native prairies and will use low-carbon materials, high-efficiency building systems with rainwater collection and water-reduction strategies. A living roof on top of the GRB South will also have the potential for solar integration.

"It is imperative for us to stay competitive and meet the needs of our meetings and convention customers,” Michael Heckman, president and CEO of Houston First, said in the release. “This project will not only accomplish that but will establish a gathering space that will be the epicenter for entertainment, sports, and city-wide events, accentuating our ability to capitalize on Houston's unique offerings.”

The full campus renovation is expected to wrap in 2038, and construction will be managed in phases. Houston First reports that construction should not impact events currently scheduled as GRB.

“This project is truly transformative for downtown Houston, a lasting legacy that will solidify our position as a top-tier convention and entertainment destination,” Mayor John Whitmire said in the release. “Most importantly, we are creating a space that will build community, foster connection, and shape the future of Houston.”

Explore renderings of the plans below.

Rendering courtesy Houston First.

The prototype features 60 micro-apartments per floor, or 1,140 residential units per building. Photo courtesy of Gensler

Study proposes converting Houston's vacant office space into affordable micro-apartments

Innovative Living

Downtown Houston has been fortunate to benefit from a transformation over the last couple of decades. Beautiful green spaces, luxury high-rises and hotels, restaurants, and updated arts and entertainment facilities are home to impressive art installations, farmers markets, major professional sporting events, and more. On the flip side of this, Houston’s central business district has seen a steep decline in commercial occupancy, struggling to bounce back to pre-COVID levels.

Houston is not alone in experiencing this situation. Nationwide, commercial vacancies are becoming increasingly noteworthy as the gap between residential rental rates and stagnant wages widens. Low-income earners, folks making between $20,000 and $30,000 annually (typically minimum wage employees, students and seniors living on Social Security), have been joining the ranks of the unhoused at an alarming rate due to the scarcity of affordable housing. Armchair economists and the like have been arguing for years that cities should repurpose these untapped resources into an opportunity to create dignified affordable housing that would keep those at risk off the streets and close to public transit options.

Pew Charitable Trust, along with international architectural firm Gensler, recently released their findings from a study on the subject — with Houston being one of two markets studied. The “Flexible Co-Living Housing Feasibility Study” found that converting Houston’s empty office buildings to communities of micro-apartments is, well, feasible.

“In the current climate of high construction costs, interest rates, building expenses, and rising rents, this project looks at the conventional office-to-residential conversion in a different way by leveraging the existing building infrastructure to reduce costs on a per unit basis,” Brooks Howell, principal architect at Gensler, tells CultureMap. “The result is a new housing typology, a co-living concept, that can provide affordable housing to the large and growing number of lower income single-person households in an urban context.”

The numbers
HUD reported that in 2024 homelessness was at an all-time high of 770,000 persons, up a staggering 18 percent from the prior year. Houston is on the low end of the national average, with a reported 3,270 homeless persons (4/10,000 Houstonians). CoStar data shows that Houston’s central business district contains 88 office buildings of over 50,000 square feet, 19 of which show reported vacancy rates of over 30 percent. As of November 2024, the median rent in Houston for an apartment was $1,297. The proposed rental rate for a furnished micro-apartment in a converted office building in downtown Houston is $700 — all inclusive, with zero move-in costs, as the units are fully furnished.

“The U.S. has a housing shortage of 4-7 million homes, which has driven rents to an all-time high and made it hard to save to buy a home,” Alex Horowitz, a project director for Pew Charitable Trust and a co-author of the study, adds. “Houston has one of the highest office vacancy rates in the U.S., but office layouts often don't work well for apartment conversions and carry high costs. This study finds that converting offices to dorm-style housing is cost-effective and can enable low rents — about $700 per month to live downtown. That could make a real difference for people struggling with high housing costs while revitalizing downtown.”

Co-living explained
Co-living is hardly a new concept. “Single room occupancy” dwellings, or SROs, were extremely common until about 1950. It’s worth noting that during the height of its popularity, homelessness was rare. The co-living model allows for a private furnished space, while bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry are shared facilities — much like a college dormitory. With 40 percent of renters being single occupants, this model promotes socialization and community, something that has been trending downward since the pandemic.

Wesley LeBlanc, principal analytics director for Gensler Chicago, adds that this elevated dorm situation is a “jumping off point for a number of models,” noting that there are six variations from the one in the study. LeBlanc encourages people to “Think beyond the conventional. A whole world of housing solutions come out of this.”

Office building apartment converstion floorplan rendering gensler Individual rooms share amenities such as larger living rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens.Courtesy of Gensler


What to expect in a typical converted building
The Pew/Gensler report proposes a prototypical building standard of 24 floors, 19 of which are residential, with 60 micro-apartments per floor, or 1,140 residential units per building. Each floor would offer six shared kitchen areas, five larger shared living spaces, two smaller shared living spaces tucked into interior hallways, two central shower areas with five private shower rooms each. Two shower rooms would include toilets and sinks, plus two additional toilet rooms with four toilets and two sinks. The total comes to 10 showers, 12 toilets, and 14 sinks per floor. Two laundry rooms, each with three washers and dryers, would also be available per floor.

The high cost of converting office buildings into fully plumbed, individual studio apartments can be cost prohibitive, leading a pragmatic Howell to ask: “What if we didn’t demo everything?” The utilization of existing centralized plumbing on each floor saves an average of 25-35 percent in construction costs that would arise from running new plumbing to each unit.

The ground floor would consist of a main lobby, management office, and 10,000 square feet of retail space. Floors two through four would be reserved for parking, while the fifth floor would offer 10,000 square feet of Class B office space as well as amenities like the gym.

While subsidies will be required for the conversion, the same will not be true once the development is out of the construction phase. The co-living model is projected to cost around one-third of the cost of converting an office building to individual studio apartments or constructing new affordable housing.

Office building apartment converstion unit rendering gensler An illustration of what a bedroom would look like.Courtesy of Gensler

Micro-apartments details
Each individual unit is designed to be 151 square feet, approximately the size of a modest hotel room. Furnishings include one extra-long twin bed (bedding included), a desk, chair, nightstand, standard-depth half-sized fridge, storage shelf, and cabinet. Units would have solid-core wooden doors and appropriate sound insulation — all for a tidy $700 per month.

Pricing has been a key factor in determining this configuration for affordable, urban housing. “Lowering the cost of housing to manageable levels enables residents to spend more on the other financial needs of their lives, which has broad implications for quality of life and well being,” LeBlanc explains.

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, CultureMap.com.

METRO Board Chair Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock and Mayor John Whitmire pose with a microtransit shuttle. Courtesy of METRO

METRO rolls out electric shuttles for downtown Houston commuters

on a roll

The innovative METRO microtransit program will be expanding to the downtown area, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County announced on Monday.

“Microtransit is a proven solution to get more people where they need to go safely and efficiently,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in a statement. “Connected communities are safer communities, and bringing microtransit to Houston builds on my promise for smart, fiscally-sound infrastructure growth.”

The program started in June 2023 when the city’s nonprofit Evolve Houston partnered with the for-profit Ryde company to offer free shuttle service to residents of Second and Third Ward. The shuttles are all-electric and take riders to bus stops, medical buildings, and grocery stores. Essentially, it works as a traditional ride-share service but focuses on multiple passengers in areas where bus access may involve hazards or other obstacles. Riders access the system through the Ride Circuit app.

So far, the microtransit system has made a positive impact in the wards according to METRO. This has led to the current expansion into the downtown area. The system is not designed to replace the standard bus service, but to help riders navigate to it through areas where bus service is more difficult.

“Integrating microtransit into METRO’s public transit system demonstrates a commitment to finding innovative solutions that meet our customers where they are,” said METRO Board Chair Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock. “This on-demand service provides a flexible, easier way to reach METRO buses and rail lines and will grow ridership by solving the first- and last-mile challenges that have hindered people’s ability to choose METRO.”

The City of Houston approved a renewal of the microtransit program in July, authorizing Evolve Houston to spend $1.3 million on it. Some, like council member Letitia Plummer, have questioned whether microtransit is really the future for METRO as the service cuts lines such as the University Corridor.

However, the microtransit system serves clear and longstanding needs in Houston. Getting to and from bus stops in the city with its long blocks, spread-out communities, and fickle pedestrian ways can be difficult, especially for poor or disabled riders. While the bus and rail work fine for longer distances, shorter ones can be underserved.

Even in places like downtown where stops are plentiful, movement between them can still involve walks of a mile or more, and may not serve for short trips.

“Our microtransit service is a game-changer for connecting people, and we are thrilled to launch it in downtown Houston,” said Evolve executive director Casey Brown. “The all-electric, on-demand service complements METRO’s existing fixed-route systems while offering a new solution for short trips. This launch marks an important milestone for our service, and we look forward to introducing additional zones in the new year — improving access to public transit and local destinations.”

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Meet the 10th cohort for gBETA Houston. Photo via gener8tor.com

10th Houston cohort named to early-stage accelerator

ready to grow

National venture capital firm gener8tor named its 10th Houston cohort this week, which includes startups focused on innovative tableware to substitute teacher operations.

gBETA Houston offers startups and founders with a non-equity seven-week program that features intensive concierge coaching and access to a network of investors and partners. The founders will pitch their ideas on Oct. 24 at 6:30 p.m. at the Esperson Building.

"Each cohort shows us how innovation evolves and thrives," Muriel Foster, gBETA Houston director, says in a statement. "The Spring 2024 gBETA Houston cohort embodies creative brilliance and unyielding ambition."

The five companies named to gBETA were chosen based on their growth potential and investor readiness. They include:

  • BrainBuffet, an AI-powered platform that has already created over 250 courses to refine its personalized learning algorithm that builds customized courses that feature curated content, YouTube videos, quizzes, and progress tracking
  • Colorfull Plates, a tableware startup that creates durable, vibrant products that aim to streamline family meals and encourage children to try new flavors. It has generated $300,000 in revenue without outside dilutive funding.
  • The Parent Teacher Collaborative, a web- and mobile-based platform that aims to improve student outcomes by building strong collaborative partnerships, growing parent-teacher organizations and better managing school events. It's worked with five Houston-area communities and has raised over $144,000 in grant and contract funding since April 2023.
  • Kinfolk, a user-friendly mobile application that creates a digital time capsule of family traditions, memories and cultural heritage. It has over 50 beta-testing customers.
  • SubSpark, a mobile and desktop app that allows school administrators and teachers to post available openings for substitute teachers. The Houston-based LLC is currently beta-testing its apps with one Houston-area private school.

The five companies joined the spring 2024 cohort and the rest of the Houston gBETA network.

gBETA is supported by Downtown Houston, the City of Houston and the Downtown Redevelopment Authority. The program has accelerated 45 Houston companies since its launch in Houston in 2019. It was launched by a $1.25 million grant to be paid out over five years.
Energy Tech Nexus has opened in downtown Houston. Photo by Natalie Harms/EnergyCapital

New downtown Houston hub opens to support energy transition innovators

now open

Three Houston energy innovators have cut the ribbon on a new space for energy transition innovation.

The Energy Tech Nexus, located in the historic Niels Esperson Building at the corner of Travis and Rusk Avenue, opened on September 10, which was proclaimed Energy Tech Nexus Day by the city.

Jason Ethier and Juliana Garaizar, formerly in leadership roles at Greentown Labs, teamed up with Nada Ahmed, previously headed innovation and transformation at Aker Solutions, launched ETN as a community for energy transition startups. The new hub plans to host incubation programs, provide mentorship, and open doors to funding and strategic partnerships for its members.

"We are creating more than a space for innovation," Garaizar, who serves as CEO of ETN, says in a news release. "We are crafting a community where pioneers in technology and energy converge to challenge the status quo and accelerate the shift to sustainable energy solutions."

The hub describes its goal of tackling the "trilemma" of energy security, sustainability, and affordability while also contributing to the mission of setting up Houston as the global center for energy transition. To accomplish that mission, ETN will help facilitate rapid deployment of cutting-edge energy technologies.

'The future of energy is not just being written here in Houston; it's being rewritten in more sustainable, efficient, and innovative ways," adds Garaizar. "Houston provides the perfect backdrop for this transformation, offering a rich history in energy and a forward-looking approach to its challenges and opportunities."

"We believe that a broad spectrum of perspectives is crucial in solving global energy challenges. It's about bringing everyone to the table — startups, industry leaders, and investors from all backgrounds," she continues.

Ethier, who co-hosts the Energy Tech Startups Podcast with Ahmed, says he hopes that ETN acts as a meeting place for energy transition innovators.

"By providing the right tools, access, and expertise, we are enabling these companies to leap from ideation to implementation at an unprecedented pace;" Ethier explains. "The interaction between startups and established companies within Energy Tech Nexus creates a unique synergy, fostering innovations that might otherwise take years to mature in isolation."

Payal Patel, an angel investor who has held leadership roles at Station Houston, Plug and Play Ventures, and Softeq, also contributed to launching ETN, which is collaborating with George Liu, who has over 15 years of investment banking experience across energy, cleantech and hardtech with more than $20 billion in M&A projects across his career.

In May, ETN teamed up with Impact Hub Houston to establish the Equitable Energy Transition Alliance and Lab to accelerate startup pilots for underserved communities. The initiative announced that it's won the 2024 U.S. Small Business Administration Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, or GAFC, Stage One award.

ETN celebrated its opening during the inaugural Houston Energy and Climate Week.

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This article originally ran on EnergyCapital.

Fervo Energy went from a 5,158-square-foot space to a 23,782-square-foot office in downtown Houston. Photo via Hines

Growing Houston energy startup scales local office presence

settling in

On the heels of landing more than $240 million in venture capital, Houston-based geothermal power provider Fervo Energy has more than quadrupled the size of its headquarters.

Fervo previously occupied 5,158 square feet at 114 Main St. in downtown Houston. The company recently left the Main Street space and leased 23,782 square feet at downtown Houston’s 910 Louisiana office tower. Houston-based commercial real estate company Hines owns and manages the 50-story former One Shell Plaza.

“We believe Houston is the center of the energy transition, and downtown Houston has long been its center of activity,” Tim Latimer, co-founder and CEO of Fervo Energy, says in a news release. “The availability of dining options, parks, and biking infrastructure continue to be great assets and a huge draw for our team. For these reasons and more, the only place for Fervo’s headquarters is downtown Houston.”

In February 2024, Fervo announced it had raised $244 million in an investment round led by Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based hydrocarbon exploration company Devon Energy. Fervo has collected $431 million in funding since its founding in 2017.

Energy companies like Fervo occupy about 43 percent of office space in downtown Houston, according to a new report from the Downtown Houston+ organization. Nineteen new tenants set up shop last year in downtown Houston, with 10 of them operating in the energy sector.

Other energy companies that recently leased office space in downtown Houston include:

  • AES Clean Energy
  • Axip Energy Services
  • EnLink Midstream
  • MRC Global
  • Repsol Renewables
  • Stonepeak
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CultureMap Emails are Awesome

7 innovative startups that are leading the energy transition in Houston

meet the finalists

Houston has long been touted as the energy capital of the world, and it's now it's also a leading player in the energy transition — home to numerous startups and innovators working toward a cleaner future.

As part of the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards, our Energy Transition Business category honors innovative startups that are providing solution within renewables, climatetech, clean energy, alternative materials, circular economy, and more.

Seven energy transition companies have been named finalists for the 2025 award. They range from a spinoff stimulating subsurface hydrogen from end-of-life oil fields to a company converting prickly pear cactus biogas into energy.

Read more about these climatetech businesses, their founders, and their green initiatives below. Then join us at the Houston Innovation Awards on Nov. 13 at Greentown Labs, when the winner will be unveiled at our live awards ceremony.

Tickets are now on sale for this exclusive event celebrating all things Houston Innovation.

Anning Corporation

Clean energy company Anning Corporation is working to develop geologic hydrogen, a natural carbon-free fuel, using its proprietary stimulation approaches and advanced exploration modeling. The company said that geologic hydrogen has the potential to be the lowest-cost source of reliable baseload electricity in the U.S.

The company was founded by CEO Sophie Broun in 2024 and is a member of Greentown Labs. Last month, it also announced that it was chosen to participate in Breakthrough Energy’s prestigious Fellows Program. Anning raised a pre-seed round this year and is currently raising a $6 million seed round.

Capwell Services

Houston-based methane capture company Capwell Services works to eliminate vented oil and gas emissions economically for operators. According to the company, methane emissions are vented from most oil and gas facilities due to safety protocols, and operators are not able to capture the gas cost-effectively, leading operators to emit more than 14 million metric tons of methane per year in the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 2022, Capwell specializes in low and intermittent flow vents for methane capture.

The company began as a University of Pennsylvania senior design project led by current CEO Andrew Lane. It has since participated in programs with Greentown Labs and Rice Clean Energy Accelerator. The company moved to Houston in 2023 and raised a pre-seed round. It has also received federal funding from the DOE. Capwell is currently piloting its commercial unit with oil and gas operators.

Deep Anchor Solutions

Offshore energy consulting and design company Deep Anchor Solutions aims to help expedite the adoption of floating offshore energy infrastructure with its deeply embedded ring anchor (DERA) technology. According to the company, its patented DERA system can be installed quietly without heavy-lift vessels, reducing anchor-related costs by up to 75 percent and lifecycle CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent.

The company was founded in 2023 by current CEO Junho Lee and CTO Charles Aubeny. Lee earned his Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering from Texas A&M University, where Aubeny is a professor of civil and environmental engineering. The company has participated in numerous accelerators and incubators, including Greentown Labs, MassChallenge, EnergyTech Nexus LiftOff, and others. Lee is an Activate 2025 fellow.

Eclipse Energy

Previously known as Gold H2, Eclipse Energy converts end-of-life oil fields into low-cost, sustainable hydrogen sources. It completed its first field trial this summer, which demonstrated subsurface bio-stimulated hydrogen production. According to the company, its technology could yield up to 250 billion kilograms of low-carbon hydrogen, which is estimated to provide enough clean power to Los Angeles for over 50 years and avoid roughly 1 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent.

Eclipse is a spinoff of Houston biotech company Cemvita. It was founded in 2022 by Moji Karimi (CEO and chairman of Cemvita), Prabhdeep Sekhon (CEO of Eclipse), Tara Karimi, and Rayyan Islam. The company closed an $8 million series A this year and has plans to raise another round in 2026.

Loop Bioproducts

Agricultural chemical manufacturing company Loop Bioproducts leverages the physiology of prickly pear cactus grown in Texas to produce bioenergy, food, and remediate industrial wastewater streams. The company uses its remote sensing technology, proprietary image-based machine learning model, and R&D innovation to capture raw biogas from the cactuses and is focused on scaling cactuses as an industrial crop on land.

Rhiannon Parker founded Loop Bioproducts in 2023.

Mars Materials

Clean chemical manufacturing business Mars Materials is working to convert captured carbon into resources, such as carbon fiber and wastewater treatment chemicals. The company develops and produces its drop-in chemical products in Houston and uses an in-licensed process for the National Renewable Energy Lab to produce acrylonitrile, which is used to produce plastics, synthetic fibers, and rubbers. The company reports that it plans to open its first commercial plant in the next 18 months.

Founded in 2019 by CEO Aaron Fitzgerald, CTO Kristian Gubsch, and lead engineer Trey Sheridan, the company has raised just under $1 million in capital and is backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy, Shell, Black & Veatch, and other organizations.

Solidec

Chemical manufacturing company Solidec has developed autonomous generators that extract molecules from water and air and converts them into pure chemicals and fuels that are free of carbon emissions onsite, eliminating the need for transport, storage, and permitting. The company was founded around innovations developed by Rice University associate professor Haotian Wang.

The company was selected for the Chevron Technology Ventures’ catalyst program, Greentown Labs, NSF I-Corps and was part of the first cohort of the Activate Houston program. It won first place at the 2024 startup pitch competition at CERAWeek. Solidec was founded in 2023 by Wang, who serves as chief scientist, CEO Ryan DuChanois, and CTO Yang Xia. It closed a $2.5 million seed round earlier this year.

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The Houston Innovation Awards program is sponsored by Houston Community College, Houston Powder Coaters, FLIGHT by Yuengling, and more to be announced soon. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact sales@innovationmap.com.

Rice University team develops eco-friendly method to destroy 'forever chemicals' in water

clean water research

Rice University researchers have teamed up with South Korean scientists to develop the first eco-friendly technology that captures and destroys toxic “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, in water.

PFAS have been linked to immune system disruption, certain cancers, liver damage and reproductive disorders. They can be found in water, soil and air, as well as in products like Teflon pans, waterproof clothing and food packaging. They do not degrade easily and are difficult to remove.

Thus far, PFAS cleanup methods have relied on adsorption, in which molecules cling to materials like activated carbon or ion-exchange resins. But these methods tend to have limited capacity, low efficiency, slow performance and can create additional waste.

The Rice-led study, published in the journal Advanced Materials, centered on a layered double hydroxide (LDH) material made from copper and aluminum that could rapidly capture PFAS and be used to destroy the chemicals.

The study was led by Rice professor Youngkun Chung, a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Michael S. Wong. It was conducted in collaboration with Seoktae Kang, professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Keon-Ham Kim, professor at Pukyung National University, who first discovered the LDH material.

The team evaluated the LDH material in river water, tap water and wastewater. And, according to Rice, that material’s unique copper-aluminum layers and charge imbalances created an ideal binding environment to capture PFAS molecules.

“To my astonishment, this LDH compound captured PFAS more than 1,000 times better than other materials,” Chung, lead author of the study and now a fellow at Rice’s WaTER (Water Technologies, Entrepreneurship and Research) Institute and Sustainability Institute, said in a news release. “It also worked incredibly fast, removing large amounts of PFAS within minutes, about 100 times faster than commercial carbon filters.”

Next, Chung, along with Rice professors Pedro Alvarez and James Tour, worked to develop an eco-friendly, sustainable method of thermally decomposing the PFAS captured on the LDH material. They heated saturated material with calcium carbonate, which eliminated more than half of the trapped PFAS without releasing toxic by-products.

The team believes the study’s results could potentially have large-scale applications in industrial cleanups and municipal water treatments.

“We are excited by the potential of this one-of-a-kind LDH-based technology to transform how PFAS-contaminated water sources are treated in the near future,” Wong added in the news release. “It’s the result of an extraordinary international collaboration and the creativity of young researchers.”

Axiom Space announces new CEO amid strategic leadership change

new leader

Six months after promoting Tejpaul Bhatia from chief revenue officer to CEO, commercial space infrastructure and human spaceflight services provider Axiom Space has replaced him.

On Oct. 15, Houston-based Axiom announced Jonathan Cirtain has succeeded Bhatia as CEO. Bhatia joined Axiom in 2021. Cirtain remains the company’s president, a role he assumed in June, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In a news release, Axiom said Cirtain’s appointment as CEO is a “strategic leadership change” aimed at advancing the company’s development of space infrastructure.

Axiom hired Cirtain as president in June, according to his LinkedIn profile. The company didn’t publicly announce that move.

Kam Ghaffarian, co-founder and executive chairman of Axiom, said Cirtain’s “proven track record of leadership and commitment to excellence align perfectly with our mission of building era-defining space infrastructure that will drive exploration and fuel the global space economy.”

Aside from praising Cirtain, Ghaffarian expressed his “sincere gratitude” for Bhatia’s work at Axiom, including his leadership as CEO during “a significant transition period.”

Bhatia was promoted to CEO in April after helping Axiom gain more than $1 billion in contracts, Space News reported. He succeeded Ghaffarian as CEO. Axiom didn’t indicate whether Bhatia quit or was terminated.

Cirtain, an astrophysicist, was a senior executive at BWX Technologies, a supplier of nuclear components and fuel, for eight years before joining Axiom. Earlier, Cirtain spent nearly nine years in various roles at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He previously co-founded a machine learning company specializing in Earth observation.

“Axiom Space is pioneering the commercialization of low-Earth orbit infrastructure while accelerating advancements in human spaceflight technologies,” Cirtain said. “I look forward to continuing our team’s important work of driving innovation to support expanded access to space and off-planet capabilities that will underpin the future of space exploration.”

Among other projects, Axiom is developing the world’s first commercial space station, creating next-generation spacesuits for astronauts and sending astronauts on low-Earth orbit missions.