3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Natara Branch of Houston Exponential, Tim Latimer of Fervo Energy, and Ayse McCracken of Ignite. Photos courtesy

Editor's note: In this week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three local innovators across industries recently making headlines in Houston across energy, health care, and more.

Natara Branch, CEO of Houston Exponential

Natara Branch joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss changes to the organization's spring summit. Photo courtesy of HX

For three years, Houston Exponential has hosted a week-long event showcasing and connecting Houston's tech and innovation community, but next year it might look a little different.

Houston Tech Rodeo, which originated in 2020, has been rebranded to H-Town Roundup, but the week of innovation and entrepreneurship still has the same goal of providing programming and events that connect and educate Houstonians. And, for the ease of transition, the organization is still conveniently referring to the event as HTR.

Natara Branch, CEO of Houston Exponential, says the change is meant to make for a more inclusive experience for entrepreneurs of small businesses, something she's seen a need for since she took on her role last year.

"This year, we've had the better part of a year to think about what can be different and how can we serve the founder," she says on the Houston Innovators Podcast. Read more.

Tim Latimer, CEO and founder of Fervo Energy

Tim Latimer, CEO and co-founder of Fervo Energy. Photo via LinkedIn

Google is on a mission to run all of its data centers and office campuses on constant carbon-free energy by 2030, and the tech giant is one step closer to that goal thanks to technology from a Houston startup.

Last week, Google announced that its 24/7 carbon-free energy, or CFE, in Nevada to power its local data center in the state is officially operational. The facility is powered by Houston-based Fervo Energy's geothermal technology, a project — called Project Red — that began in 2021 and celebrated its successful pilot this summer. Tim Latimer founded Fervo on the West Coast before relocating the company to Houston. Read more.

Ayse McCracken, founder of Ignite Health Foundation

Ignite has announced a new foundation to further its reach in supporting women in health care. Photo via ignitehealthcare.org

For the past few years, a Houston organization has supported nearly 100 female-founded health tech startups with programming, crucial connections, and more. Now, with a newly launched nonprofit arm, the organization is taking it to the next level to bolster women in health care.

Ignite Healthcare Network, which was founded in 2017 by longtime Houston health care professional Ayse McCracken, has created Ignite Health Foundation, a nonprofit foundation, to go beyond startups and technology to support women in health care across the board with networking and events, in-person and virtual programming, professional development, and more.

"The Foundation is a vehicle for major fundraising grants and foundations allowing Ignite to scale the work we do to discover exceptional women leaders and innovators, connect them with an expert community and help them achieve their career goals," McCracken says. Read more.

Ignite has announced a new foundation to further its reach in supporting women in health care. Photo via ignitehealthcare.org

Houston health tech accelerator launches nonprofit to spark, support female leaders in the industry

igniting change

"This initiative not only amplifies our commitment to inspiring innovation in an untapped resource, female leaders and entrepreneurs but also sets the stage for groundbreaking advancements in healthcare," she adds.

The foundation will accept donations from those who look to level the playing field for women in health care leadership and to support innovative endeavours from female founders. The financial support will go toward all of Ignite's programming

"Join us on the journey and invest in women shaping the future of healthcare to create an inclusive and healthier world," says Sara Speer Selber, chair of Friends of Ignite Health Foundation, in the release.

Last month, Ignite hosted its annual Fire Pitch Competition at the Ion, crowning the award recipients and doling out cash prizes. This year, eight finalists of the 19-company cohort presented at the competition for judges and an audience, and three companies secured top spots and prizes.

In a recent interview with InnovationMap, McCracken spoke to how she's always looking for ways to grow her impact with Ignite.

"Having an impact in the health care industry and finding solutions is important to me," McCracken says of her passion for Ignite on a recent episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. "The second aspect of that is there are so many women in health care, and yet you don't see them in leadership roles."

Ayse McCracken, founder of Ignite Healthcare Network, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss how she's growing her impact on female health tech founders. Photo via LinkedIn

Houston health tech leader to expand accelerator to continue connecting female founders

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 203

With a decades-long career in health care, Ayse McCracken's most recent professional chapter has been laser focused on finding, supporting, and accelerating female-founded startups in health tech with her nonprofit, Ignite Healthcare Network.

Originally founded in 2017 as a pitch competition, Ignite has evolved to become an active and integral program for female health tech entrepreneurs. Ninety-one founders have graduated from Ignite and gone on to raise over $550 million in funding for their ventures. Currently, Ignite has 19 women in its 2023 cohort, which concludes November 9 with the annual Fire Pitch competition.

"Having an impact in the health care industry and finding solutions is important to me," McCracken says of her passion for Ignite on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. "The second aspect of that is there are so many women in health care, and yet you don't see them in leadership roles."

With Ignite, McCracken is actively seeking out these potential female leaders, and giving them the support — through mentorship, programming, and networking opportunities — they need to grow their business.

Each year, McCracken explains, she's pushing the envelope with what she can accomplish with Ignite. This year, she hosted a new event in Dallas to reach female founders there, and coming soon, Ignite will launch a platform that will extend its relationship with its founders and keep them looped in with potential customers, mentors, investors, and more.

"We're in the process of building our own platform that continues to connect our ecosystem so that we're not just an episode in the journey of an entrepreneur, but that we have the ability to help them along their path," McCracken says. "That path is a rollercoaster for a variety of reasons — whether it's gender or market related — and if we help to provide a community that can provide support for companies that have promise, our goal is to, over time, triple the money that female entrepreneurs are getting."

But McCracken says she wants Ignite to do more than just find investors for her network of founders.

"Success to me isn't just getting people an early stage investment," she explains. "Success to me is getting companies that actually commercialize, get their products in the market, and that they are actually making an impact on health wellbeing, patients, and so forth."

McCracken shares more about the future of Ignite on the podcast. Listen to the interview here — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.

Prana Thoracic, an innovative startup in the lung cancer diagnostics space, has raised its series A round of investment. Photo via LinkedIn

Houston health tech company closes $3M series A

money moves

It's been just under six months since the launch of Prana Thoracic, a Houston health tech startup tackling lung cancer diagnostics, and the company has already secured its next round of investment funding.

Prana Thoracic, a medical device company developing a tool for early interception of lung cancer, announced last week that it closed a $3 million series A financing round led by Florida-based New World Angels with participation from Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., Texas Medical Center Venture Fund, and the University City Science Center’s Phase 1 Ventures.

In August, the company received a $3 million award from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas. All of Prana Thoracic's funding is being used to develop the unique diagnostic product and the company's path to first-in-human clinical studies.

“Our technology provides a definitive answer to patients with lung nodules and allows physicians to intervene earlier in the lung cancer patient’s journey,” says Joanna Nathan, CEO, and co-founder of Prana, in a news release. “Our team is grateful to have the support of our investors and excited to leverage this financing to accelerate our technology to the bedside.”

The company's technology is a minimally invasive, tissue-sparing nodulectomy tool that can evaluate suspicious pulmonary nodules early on in hopes of being able to catch and treat patients with lung cancer. The tool's development originated on the grounds of the Texas Medical Center in collaboration with Precision Thoracic Corp.

“Prana’s cutting-edge technology was developed on the TMC campus, and we are excited to continue to support Prana in meeting its next milestone through funding from the TMC Venture Fund. The technology they are spearheading could be a game changer in how physicians detect and treat lung cancer. Congratulations to the team on this exciting announcement,” says William McKeon, president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center, in the release.

Micheal Haimour, director of New World Angels, has joined Prana as a board member.

“We are delighted to support CEO Joanna Nathan and her team at Prana as they seek to develop solutions for the early detection and intervention of lung cancer,” he says in the release

Since the company emerged from stealth last summer, Prana has added a few feathers to its cap as a startup. In November, Nathan pitched and won first place at Ignite Healthcare Network’s annual Fire Pitch Competition. Prana was also named a finalist in the Female-Founded Businesses category of the Houston Innovation Awards. Currently, Prana is a member of the Spring 2023 cohort of the TMCi HealthTech Accelerator.

Three female-founded health tech startups won awards at this year's Ignite Healthcare's Fire Pitch Competition. Photo courtesy of Ignite

Houston health tech startup wins female-focused pitch competition

women in health care

For the fourth year, a Houston-based, female-focused health tech organization has spotlighted the industry's emerging technology entrepreneurs.

Earlier this month, Ignite Healthcare Network’s Accelerator Program hosted its seven women-led digital health startup finalists, narrowed down from over 330 startups, at its annual Fire Pitch Competition. The nonprofit is led by a group of women executives committed to shaping the future of health care.

“The fourth year of Ignite Health’s Accelerator Program has proved to attract more and more women founders of digital tech and med device startups from around the world,” says Ayse McCracken, Ignite's founder, in a news release.

According to McCracken, 22 applicants made it into the program, which launched earlier this year. A group of judges narrowed down that group to seven finalists, before announcing the top three companies for the competition.

Joanna Nathan, CEO of Houston-based Prana Thoracic, won the top award for her company. Stephanie Gravenor, founder of Denver-based Medecipher, and Liane Clamen, founder of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts-based Adaptilens, won second and third, respectively.

The event doled out over $500,000 in total. Jay Goss, general partner of Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health, announced $100,000 investments into four finalists' companies. The finalists receiving this award are:

Pamela Bonnett, CEO of Denver-based Ultrasound AI
Christine Lum Lung, co-founder and CEO of Fort Collins, Colorado-based Origin Healthcare
Pamela Singh, co-founder and CEO of Houston-based CaseCTRL
Stephanie Gravenor, founder and CEO of Denver-based Medecipher

The partner organizations participating in this year's accelerator and event included Houston Methodist, Memorial Hermann Health System, Texas Children’s Hospital, Texas Children’s Pediatrics, The Menninger Clinic, HCA, Kindred Healthcare, Aetna, Texas Health Resources, Cook Children’s Hospital, TMC, Golden Seeds, Wavemaker 360 Health, Portfolia, Prosalus, 7Wire, Texas Halo Fund, Unity Point Ventures, and others.

“We are grateful for the support and generosity of our sponsors for helping to make this event possible,” says Cheryl Stavins, Ignite board member and co-chair of the event, in the news release. “Their support and involvement continue to ignite our mission and passion to ensure the success and recognition of women entrepreneurs in healthcare.”

Earlier in the day, Ignite Health hosted a new event called “Women Shaping the Future of Healthcare Luncheon." Eighty female executives, investors, founders, and community leaders gathered to hear from three of Ignite Health’s alumni founders: Somer Baburek, CEO of Hera Biotech, Dr. Liz Clayborne, CEO of Nasaclip, and Amanda Gorman, chief clinical officer of Nest Collaborative.

In the latest round up of Houston innovation news you may have missed, Houston has been deemed an affordable city for tech careers, HighRadius has a new product, and more. Photo via Getty Images

Houston named an affordable tech city, startup hires CFO, and more local innovation news

short stories

It's been a busy summer for the Houston innovation ecosystem, and for this reason, local startup and tech news may have fallen through some of the cracks.

In this roundup of short stories within Houston innovation, a software company has a new game-changing product, Houston was named an affordable city for a tech career, a health tech startup has a new C-suite leader, and more.

Houston ranks as affordable tech city

Houston is an affordable city to start off your career in tech, per this new report. Image courtesy of CodingDojo

While the coasts have some of the most booming tech hubs, Coding Dojo set off to identify the hubs with affordability for young professionals just starting off. The coding bootcamp started off by identifying the fastest growing cities in America using data from the Census, and factored in Apartment List's housing price data and the number of engineering jobs available in each city.

"The purpose of the report is to highlight cities that may be overlooked but have affordable living costs, plenty of open developer jobs in the vicinity and thus, are viable options to start or continue a career in tech," reads the report.

Houston ranks as No. 6 on the list, following Dallas at No. 1 and Austin suburb Leander as No. 2.

"With major campuses or headquarters in town for companies like FlightAware, Microsoft, Halliburton, and many others, you won't have a problem with Houston as your tech career destination," the report writes.

Houston data in the report:

Median Rent: $1,141
Entry-Level Developer Jobs: 81
Mid-Level Developer Jobs: 278

HighRadius announces new product

HighRadius has a new game-changing software update. Photo via highradius.com

Houston unicorn fintech SaaS company HighRadius has a new product that hit a milestone. The RadiusOne AR achieved "Built for NetSuite" status, according to a news release from the company.

"With RadiusOne AR, we can help NetSuite customers automate their AR processes, manage their operational costs, and increase efficiency," says Sayid Shabeer, chief product officer at HighRadius, in the release. "The RadiusOne AR SuiteApp will allow our joint customers to have stronger cash-flow using AI-based technology to automate their electronic invoicing, collections, cash reconciliation, and credit risk."

The product is aimed at streamlining invoicing and collections, cash reconciliation and credit risk services. The software is affordable and easy to deploy, potentially delivering value in as little as four weeks, per the release.

"Businesses continue to look for ways to bring automation and intelligence to their AR processes to better manage their working capital," says Guido Haarmans of Oracle NetSuite in the release. "This new SuiteApp extends our robust solution for receivables management and helps NetSuite customers further optimize their cash flow management."

Ignite Healthcare's pitch application deadline looms

Now's the time to apply for Ignite's annual accelerator. Photo courtesy of Ignite

Ignite Healthcare Network has opened applications for its annual mini accelerator programs for women-led digital health and med tech companies. The deadline to apply online is July 19.

The program "provides women-led healthcare startups the unique opportunity to engage with potential customers and investors who will assess and advise on the strengths and weaknesses of their companies," according to the website.

Following the mentorship and acceleration, Ignite's Pitch Competition Event allows finalists a chance to compete for several hundred thousand dollars in cash and investment prizes from health care executives and investors. This year, the audience will include parties interested in social impact investing, in search of companies that have solutions to the needs of underserved populations, reads the website.

Pulmotect names new CFO

Bill Noss joined Houston-based Pulmotect's C-suite in June. Photo courtesy of Pulmotect

Houston-based Pulmotect Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, announced a new CFO late last month. William J. Noss III joined the company's team.

"I am delighted to welcome Bill to Pulmotect at such an important time for the company," says Dr. Colin Broom, CEO of Pulmotect, in the news release. "His expertise and experience will help build our infrastructure as we continue the clinical development of PUL-042. It is an exciting time to join Pulmotect, with two Phase 2 clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 that have been supported with funding from the Department of Defense and our planned clinical trials for the prevention of respiratory complications in cancer patients."

Noss has over 15 years of experience in the life science industry, formerly at Harmony Biosciences, where he helped lead the company through their commercial launch and subsequently through their initial public offering of $148 million, per the release.

"I am very excited to join this outstanding team as the company grows," says Noss in the release. "PUL-042 has the potential to protect patients from a broad range of viral and other pulmonary infections by activating the innate immune system. I look forward to playing a key role in the drug development program by working hard for the future benefit of patients and creating long-term value for the company and our stakeholders."

Hess makes $9M donation to STEM initiatives in the community

Houston-based Hess Corp. has contributed to a citywide initiative. Photo via trammellcrow.com

Last month, Hess Corp. announced a $9 million donation over the next three years. The gift is a part of its Learning for Life Partnership to fund educational programs and support services for Mayor Sylvester Turner's Complete Communities Initiative.

About 22 schools and over 13,000 children from pre-K through high school will benefit from the funds in the Third Ward, Magnolia Park-Manchester, and Second Ward Complete Communities neighborhoods.

Among other initiatives, the Hess Learning for Life Partnership will fund STEM equipment and curricula, teacher training, computer equipment, mentorship programs, accreditation initiatives, career life guidance counseling, and other support, according to a news release.

"Our company has a proud history of social investment programs that make a positive and lasting impact on the communities where we operate," says CEO John B. Hess in the news release. "In partnership with Mayor Turner's initiative, we are delighted to expand our commitment to provide children in the neighborhoods adjacent to Hess Tower in downtown Houston with the academic and social resources they need to reach their full potential."

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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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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.

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