3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Samina Farid of Golden Seeds, Stuart Corr of Pumps & Pipes, and Saniya Mansuri of TMC. Photos courtesy

Editor's note: Every week, I introduce you to a handful of Houston innovators to know recently making headlines with news of innovative technology, investment activity, and more. This week's batch includes three innovators across seed investing, energy tech, and health care.

Samina Farid, head of the Houston Chapter of Golden Seeds

Samina Farid of Golden Seeds joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss opportunities in angel investing. Photo courtesy of Golden Seeds

After working in technology in her home country of Pakistan, Samina Farid, who was raised in the United States, found her way to Houston in the '70s where business was booming.

She was recruited to work at Houston Natural Gas — a company that would later merge and create Enron — where she rose through the ranks and oversaw systems development for the company before taking on a role running the pipelines.

"When you're in technology, you're always looking for inefficiencies, and you always see areas where you can improve," Farid says on the Houston Innovators Podcast, explaining that she moved on from Enron in the mid-'80s, which was an exciting time for the industry.

"We had these silos of data across the industry, and I felt like we needed to be communicating better, having a good source of data, and making sure we weren't continuing to have the problems we were having," she says. "That was really the seed that got me started in the idea of building a company." Read more.

Stuart Corr, executive director of Pumps & Pipes

For the eighteenth year in a row, the annual Pumps & Pipes event will showcase and explore convergence innovation and common technology themes across Houston’s three major industries. Image courtesy of Pumps & Pipes

Every year, Houston's legacy industries — energy, medicine, and aerospace — come together to share innovative ideas and collaborate on future opportunities. The annual Pumps & Pipes event will showcase and explore convergence innovation and common technology themes across Houston’s three major industries.

"With NASA in its backyard, the world’s largest medical center, and a reputation as the 'Energy Capital of the World,' Houston is uniquely positioned to lead in cross-industry convergence innovation and is reflected in the theme of this year’s event – Blueprint Houston: Converge and Innovate," Stuart Corr, executive director of Pumps & Pipes, writes in a guest column about the event. Read more.

Saniya Mansuri, health care consultant for BioPath @ TMC

The goal of the Texas Medical Center's BioPath program is to attract young people considering going into the trades to learn the skills to become biomanufacturing professionals. Photo via TMC

Houston is currently in need of biomanufacturing professionals to keep up with the ever-growing industry. That's what Saniya Mansuri, health care consultant for BioPath @ TMC, says.

“Houston has lost out on a big biopharmaceutical company. And when there was a feasibility study that was done, it was identified that one of the reasons that Houston wasn't chosen was the lack of a workforce and a lack of workforce development programs,” she explains.

Mansuri and the TMC Innovation team are doing just that with the introduction of the new program. She moved from Toronto in 2023. When she applied for a role at TMC Innovation, she was handpicked to help shepherd the BioPath program, thanks to her background that included starting a nonprofit for underserved youth in Canada. Read more.

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Gaurab Chakrabarti of Solugen, Andy Grolnick of Graylog, and Stuart Corr of Pumps and Pipes. Photos courtesy

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: In this week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three local innovators across industries — from software to biotech — recently making headlines in Houston innovation.


Gaurab Chakrabarti, CEO and co-founder of Solugen

Solugen has announced two major partnerships. Photo via solugentech.com

Solugen had a busy week. The Houston-based company that makes sustainable chemicals announced two new partnerships.

Solugen and Sasol Chemicals, a business unit of Saslo Ltd., revealed that they are working together to explore commercialization of sustainably-made home and personal care products. Read more.

Later last week, Solugen announced that it has scored a partnership with ADM to build a biomanufacturing facility adjacent to an existing corn complex in Marshall, Minnesota. Read more.

Andy Grolnick, CEO of Graylog

Graylog, a Houston SaaS company, has new fuel to scale and develop its product. Photo via Graylog

A Houston software-as-a-service company has secured $39 million in financing and announced its latest upgrade to its platform.

Graylog, which has created an innovative platform for cybersecurity and IT operations, raised equity funding with participation from new investor Silver Lake Waterman and existing investors Piper Sandler Merchant Banking and Harbert Growth Partners leading the round.

“The growth we are seeing globally is a response to our team’s focus on innovation, a superior user experience, low total cost of ownership, and strong execution from our Go-To-Market and Customer Success teams,” Andy Grolnick, CEO of Graylog, says in a news release. “We expect this momentum to continue as Graylog expands its reach and raises its profile in the security market.” Read more.

Stuart Corr, executive director of Pumps & Pipes

A Houston expert shares reasons to swap screen time for extended reality. Photo via pumpsandpipes.org

Virtual and augmented reality are having a moment, as Stuart Corr, executive director of Pumps & Pipes, explains in a guest column for InnovationMap.

"The COVID-19 pandemic saw an unprecedented shift to even more screen time and interactions using remote video communication platforms," he writes. "It was also around this time that wireless virtual reality headsets were, for the first time ever, economically accessible to the consumer due to the large push of one multinational corporation. Fast forward to 2023, there are even more companies beginning to enter the market with new extended reality (XR) headsets (i.e. virtual, mixed, and augmented reality) that offer spatial computing – the ability for computers to blend into the physical worlds (amongst other things)." Read more.

A Houston expert shares reasons to swap screen time for extended reality. Photo via Getty Images

Extended reality will have a big impact on business, this Houston expert says

guest column

What does your reality look like? Look around you. What do you see? It would be safe to say (almost guarantee) that you are looking at a screen right now, correct? We are consumers of information and use screens to access, view, and create information.

But why are we spending so much of our time looking at screens?

One poll stated that the average adult will spend 34 years of their lives looking at screens. It almost feels that screens (TV, laptop, or phone) have become so ubiquitous in everyday life that they have blended into our reality and are just ‘there’. Do you think the inventor of the TV, John Logie Baird, ever fully grasped how much the fabric of society would revolve around his invention? Time and time again, incredible disruptions have always come from breaking the ‘norm’ and given the vast level of integration of screens into our everyday reality, this ‘norm’ feels long overdue for innovation. This is where the world of augmented reality and spatial computing comes into play.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw an unprecedented shift to even more screen time and interactions using remote video communication platforms. It was also around this time that wireless virtual reality headsets were, for the first time ever, economically accessible to the consumer due to the large push of one multinational corporation. Fast forward to 2023, there are even more companies beginning to enter the market with new extended reality (XR) headsets (i.e. virtual, mixed, and augmented reality) that offer spatial computing – the ability for computers to blend into the physical worlds (amongst other things).

Some of our innovation engineering activities at the Houston Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation, and Education (MITIE) have focused on specific use cases of XR in surgical education and training. One of our projects, the MITIEverse, is a VR-based platform focused on creating the first-ever metaverse for medical innovation. It is a fully immersive VR environment that allows the user to view 3D-rendered patient anatomies whilst watching the actual patient procedure, even offering the ability to meet the surgeon who performed the operation. It also affords the ability to give a ‘Grand Rounds’ style presentation to an audience of 50 participants.

We have looked at using augmented reality to control robotic-assisted surgery platforms. In our proof-of-concept prototype, we successfully demonstrated the manipulation of guide wires and catheters using nothing more than an augmented reality headset, illustrating the possibility of surgeons performing surgery at a distance. Houston Methodist is dedicated to transforming healthcare using the latest innovative technology including XR. The question we now need to ask – is society ready and willing to replace screens with XR headsets?

To learn more about our XR initiatives and other Houston’s cross-industry innovation collaborations, attend Pumps & Pipes Annual Event 2023, Problem Xchange: Where Solutions Converge next month at The Ion.

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Stuart Corr is the director of Innovation Systems Engineering at Houston Methodist and executive director of Pumps & Pipes.

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Stuart Corr of Pumps & Pipes, Trevor Best of Syzygy, and Jennifer Steil of Northwestern Mutual. Photos courtesy

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: In this week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three local innovators across industries — from clean energy technology to financial planning — recently making headlines in Houston innovation.

Stuart Corr, executive director of Pumps & Pipes

What do Houston's three key industries — aerospace, medicine, and energy — have in common? Pumps and pipes, Stuart Corr explains. Photo via pumpsandpipes.org

Stuart Corr, executive director of Pumps & Pipes, and his team are gearing up for the organization's big annual event — which is returning to its in-person capacity. Though most people would not connect the dots on what all the health care, energy, and aerospace industries have in common, but for Stuart Corr, the connection is clear. It's all a bunch of pumps and pipes.

The Houston organization was founded in 2007 to strengthen the collaboration across Houston's three key industries. The city has NASA down the street, the world's largest medical center, and is regarded as the "energy capital of the world." Through the Pumps & Pipes network, innovators across these entities can share resources and collaborate.

"Pumps & Pipes is all about our network — about innovation on demand. It's the idea that we understand what's in other people's toolkits and innovation and technology portfolios," Corr says on this week's episode of the Houston Innovator Podcast. "Ideally, we want to use these new technologies to solve our own problems."

The event is on December 5 at the Ion. Tickets are on sale now. Read more.Read more.

Trevor Best, co-founder and CEO of Syzygy Plasmonics

Syzygy Plasmonics has raised a series C round of funding. Photo courtesy of Syzygy

Houston-based Syzygy Plasmonics closed a $76 million series C financing round led by New York-based Carbon Direct Capital.

The investment funding raised will help the company to "further development and delivery of all-electric reactor systems that eliminate fossil-based combustion from chemical manufacturing and reduce the carbon intensity of hydrogen, methanol, and fuel," per a news release.

"Closing this fundraising round with such strong support from financial and strategic investors and with commercial agreements in hand is a signal to the market," Syzygy Plasmonics CEO and Co-Founder Trevor Best says in the release. "Forward-thinking companies have moved beyond setting decarbonization goals to executing on them. Syzygy is unique in that we are developing low-cost, low-carbon solutions to offer across multiple industries." Read more.

Jennifer Steil, wealth management adviser for Northwestern Mutual

In observance of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day on November 19, a Houstonian shares her four key considerations for women who want to start their own businesses. Photo courtesy

Saturday was Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, and one Houston-based financial planner shared some tips and considerations for aspiring female founders.

In her guest column for InnovationMap, Jennifer Steil, financial planner for Northwestern Mutual, explained the importance of authenticity and advice on building the right team and support network.

"Being a female business owner has its challenges, but it is also extremely rewarding. If you’re considering starting your own business, it’s important to remember to stay true to yourself and do your due diligence to prepare for whatever unique challenges may be thrown your way," she writes. Read more.

What do Houston's three key industries — aerospace, medicine, and energy — have in common? Pumps and pipes, Stuart Corr explains. Photo via pumpsandpipes.org

Health tech innovator shares details on uniquely Houston organization

HOUSTON INNOVATORS PODCAST EPISODE 160

Though most people would not connect the dots on what all the health care, energy, and aerospace industries have in common, but for Stuart Corr, the connection is clear. It's all a bunch of pumps and pipes.

Pumps & Pipes is a Houston organization that was founded in 2007 to strengthen the collaboration across Houston's three key industries. The city has NASA down the street, the world's largest medical center, and is regarded as the "energy capital of the world." Through the Pumps & Pipes network, innovators across these entities can share resources and collaborate.

"Pumps & Pipes is all about our network — about innovation on demand. It's the idea that we understand what's in other people's toolkits and innovation and technology portfolios," Corr says on this week's episode of the Houston Innovator Podcast. "Ideally, we want to use these new technologies to solve our own problems."

Corr is the executive director of Pumps & Pipes, which is part of Houston Methodist DeBakey CV Education. He is also the director of innovation systems engineering at Houston Methodist and associate professor of biomedical engineering research at Cornell University.

Not only is Houston the perfect place for the intersection of these three industries, but the city's diverse population — particularly the diversity of thought here, he says — also makes for a prime opportunity for collaboration.

"You have to be able to collaborate in order to drive innovation," Corr says on the show. "It's teamwork through and through. Houston is such a diverse city ... and that's a unique aspect of Houston."

For years, Pumps & Pipes has been facilitating this collaboration at its annual event. After two years of virtually connecting, Corr says the organization is going big for its return to an in-person setting. The theme is "Ion to Infinity" and experts will be joining in panels and discussions on four technologies — artificial intelligence, extended reality, Web3, and robotics — and how they are affecting each industry's innovation scene.

The event is on December 5 at the Ion. Tickets are on sale now.

Corr shares more on the event and the organization on the podcast. Listen to the interview below — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.


Houston Methodist's new MITIEverse app takes users into the metaverse to learn from professionals across the globe. Image courtesy of Houston Methodist

Houston hospital joins the metaverse with new platform

now online

Houston Methodist has launched a platform that is taking medical and scientific experts and students into the metaverse.

The MITIEverse, a new app focused on health care education and training, provides hands-on practice, remote assistance from experienced clinicians, and more. The app — named for the Houston Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation and Education, aka MITIE — was created in partnership with FundamentalVR and takes users into virtual showcase rooms, surgical simulations, and lectures from Houston Methodist faculty, as well as collaborators from across the world.

“This new app brings the hands-on education and training MITIE is known for to a new virtual audience. It could be a first step toward building out a medical metaverse,” says Stuart Corr, inventor of the MITIEverse and director of innovation systems engineering at Houston Methodist, in a news release.

Image courtesy of Houston Methodist

The hospital system's DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center has created a virtual showcase room on the app, and users can view Houston Methodist faculty performing real surgeries and then interact with 3D human models.

"We view the MITIEverse as a paradigm-shifting platform that will offer new experiences in how we educate, train, and interact with the health community,” says Alan Lumsden, M.D., medical director of Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, in the release.

“It essentially democratizes access to health care educators and innovators by breaking down physical barriers. There’s no need to travel thousands of miles to attend a conference when you can patch into the MITIEverse," he continues.

Image courtesy of Houston Methodist

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Innovative Houston research leads our top health tech news of 2025

year in review

Editor's note: As 2025 comes to a close, we're looking back at the stories that defined Houston innovation this year. The Bayou City continued to grow as a health tech hub, bringing in a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical development, playing home based to startups developing innovative treatment options and attracting leading researchers and professionals to the city. Here are the 10 most-read Houston health tech stories of the year:

Houston Nobel Prize nominee earns latest award for public health research

Dr. Peter Hotez with Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi. Photo courtesy of TMC

Houston vaccine scientist Dr. Peter Hotez is no stranger to impressive laurels. In 2022, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his low-cost COVID vaccine.

His first big win of 2025 was this year’s Hill Prize, awarded by the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology (TAMEST). Hotez and his team were selected to receive $500,000 from Lyda Hill Philanthropies to help fund The Texas Virosphere Project, which aims to create a predictive disease atlas relating to climate disasters. Rice University researchers are collaborating with Hotez and his team on a project that combines climate science and metagenomics to access 3,000 insect genomes. The goal is to aid health departments in controlling disease and informing policy. Continue reading.

U.S. News ranks Houston hospital No. 1 in Texas for 14th year in a row

Houston Methodist is once again the top hospital in Texas. Photo via Houston Methodist

U.S. News & World Report's 2025 rankings of the best hospitals in Texas prove that Houston is in good hands.

The esteemed Houston Methodist Hospital was rated the No. 1 best hospital in Texas for the 14th consecutive year, and the No. 1 hospital in the metro area. Eleven more Houston-area hospitals earned spots among the statewide top 35. Continue reading.

Eli Lilly to build $6.5B pharmaceutical factory at Generation Park

Eli Lilly is expected to bring a $6.5 billion manufacturing facility to Houston by 2030. Rendering courtesy Greater Houston Partnership.

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. plans to build a $6.5 billion manufacturing plant at Houston’s Generation Park. More than 300 locations in the U.S. competed for the factory.

The Houston site will be the first major pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Texas, according to the Greater Houston Partnership. Lilly said it plans to hire 615 full-time workers for the 236-acre plant, including engineers, scientists and lab technicians. The company will collaborate with local colleges and universities to help build its talent pipeline. Continue reading.

How a Houston company is fighting anxiety, insomnia & Alzheimer’s through waveforms

Nexalin develops non-invasive devices that help reset networks in the brain associated with symptoms of anxiety and insomnia. Photo via Getty Images.

Houston-based Nexalin Technology is taking a medicine-free approach to target brain neurologically associated with mental illness. The company's patented, FDA-cleared frequency-based waveform targets key centers of the midbrain. Delivered via a non-invasive device, the treatment gently stimulates the hypothalamus and midbrain, helping to “reset networks associated with symptoms” of anxiety and insomnia.

Nexalin’s proprietary neurostimulation device moved forward with a clinical trial that evaluated its treatment of anxiety disorders and chronic insomnia in Brazil this year and enrolled the first patients in its clinical trial at the University of California, San Diego. Continue reading.

Houston doctor aims to revolutionize hearing aid industry with tiny implant

Houston Methodist's Dr. Ron Moses has created NanoEar, which he calls “the world’s smallest hearing aid.” Photo via Getty Images.

“What is the future of hearing aids?” That’s the question that led to a potential revolution.

Dr. Ron Moses, an ENT specialist and surgeon at Houston Methodist, is the creator of NanoEar, which he calls “the world’s smallest hearing aid.” NanoEar is an implantable device that combines the invisibility of a micro-sized tympanostomy tube with more power—and a superior hearing experience—than the best behind-the-ear hearing aid. Continue reading.

Houston scores $120M in new cancer research and prevention grants

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas doled out 73 more grants to health care systems and companies in the state in November. Carter Smith/Courtesy of MD Anderson

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas granted more than $120 million to Houston organizations and companies as part of 73 new awards issued statewide this fall. The funds are part of nearly $154 million approved by the CPRIT's governing board, bringing the organization's total investment in cancer prevention and research to more than $4 billion since its inception. A portion of the funding will go toward recruiting leading cancer researchers to Houston. Continue reading.

Digital Health Institute's new exec director aims to lead innovation and commercialization efforts

Pothik Chatterjee was named executive director of Rice University's and Houston Methodist's Digital Health Institute, effective May 1. Photo courtesy Rice University.

The Digital Health Institute, a joint venture between Rice University and Houston Methodist, appointed Pothik Chatterjee to the role of executive director this summer. Chatterjee’s role is to help grow the collaboration between the institutions, but the Digital Health Institute already boasts more than 20 active projects, each of which pairs Rice faculty and Houston Methodist clinicians. Once the research is in place, it’s up to Chatterjee to find commercial opportunities within the research portfolio. Those include everything from hospital-grade medical imaging wearables to the creation of digital twins for patients to help better treat them. Continue reading.

Innovation Labs @ TMC set to launch for early-stage life science startups

Innovation Labs @ TMC will open next year at the TMC Innovation Factory. Photo courtesy JLABS.

The Texas Medical Center announced its plans to launch its new Innovation Labs @ TMC in January 2026 to better support life science startups working within the innovation hub. The 34,000-square-foot space, located in the TMC Innovation Factory at 2450 Holcombe Blvd., will feature labs and life science offices and will be managed by TMC. The expansion will allow TMC to "open its doors to a wider range of life science visionaries." Continue reading.

6 Houston health tech startups making major advancements right now

Tatiana Fofanova and Dr. Desh Mohan, founders of Koda Health. Photo courtesy Koda Health.

The Health Tech Business category in our 2025 Houston Innovation Awards honored innovative startups within the health and medical technology sectors. Six forward-thinking businesses were named finalists for the 2025 award, ranging from an end-of-life care company to others developing devices and systems for heart monitoring, sleep apnea, hearing loss and more. Continue reading or see who won here.

Houston students develop cost-effective glove to treat Parkinson's symptoms

Rice University students Emmie Casey and Tomi Kuye used smartphone motors to develop a vibrotactile glove. Photo by Gustavo Raskosky/ Courtesy Rice University.

Two Rice undergraduate engineering students have developed a non-invasive vibrotactile glove that aims to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease through therapeutic vibrations. Emmie Casey and Tomi Kuye developed the project with support from the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK). The team based the design on research from the Peter Tass Lab at Stanford University, which explored how randomized vibratory stimuli delivered to the fingertips could help rewire misfiring neurons in the brain—a key component of Parkinson’s disease. Continue reading.

Houston hailed as one of America's 10 best cities for startups

Startup Report

Houston's favorable economic climate is enticing new opportunities for entrepreneurship and growth, and now the city is being hailed as the 7th-best U.S. city for starting a business.

The recognition comes in CommercialCafe's recent "Best Cities for Startups" report, published December 10. The study analyzed large U.S. cities across two population categories – cities with more than 1 million residents and cities with populations between 500,000 and 1 million residents. The report analyzed relevant metrics such as office or coworking costs, Kickstarter funding success, startup density, and survival rates, among others.

Across the biggest U.S. cities with over a million residents, Phoenix, Arizona landed on top as the No. 1 best place to start a new business.

The report's findings revealed 10.6 percent of all businesses in Houston are startups that have been active for less than a year. These new businesses have a survival rate of 64.5 percent, meaning just under two-thirds of all startups in the city will still be running up to five years after they were first established.

Over the last five years, the number of new businesses established in Houston has grown nearly 15 percent. CommercialCafe said new businesses in cities with high startup growth rates tend to "attract top talent" which can eventually lead to securing "vital funding for expansion."

Independent professionals – also known as freelancers – are another crucial resource for new businesses that may need "specialized services" for a fixed amount of time, the report said. Houston's freelance workforce has grown about 9 percent from 2019-2023, and the analysis found there were 97,295 freelancers working in Houston in 2023, compared to 89,528 in 2019.

"Generally, cities in the South and Southwest have experienced strong growth during the surveyed period, in contrast to California cities like Los Angeles and San Diego, where the share of freelancers and gig workers has either stagnated or slightly declined," the report said.

Houston boasts the second-cheapest office space rent nationally, the report found. The average asking price for a 1,000-square-foot workspace (for five employees) in the city added up to $27,124 annually. For startups that want greater flexibility for their workers, the annual cost for a coworking space for the same number of employees in Houston came out to $13,200, which is the fourth-most affordable rate in the U.S.

Other Texas cities with attractive economic environments for startups

Texas, as a whole, is one of the strongest states for starting a new business. Other than Houston, San Antonio (No. 2), Dallas (No. 3), and Fort Worth (No. 4) were also recognized among the top 10 best places to start a business in the category of U.S. cities with more than a million residents.

Austin topped a separate ranking of best cities to start a business with 500,000 to 1 million residents.

"Specifically, the Texas capital was the frontrunner for indicators that looked at the overall share of startups within the local economy, as well as growth rates in five years (2019 to 2023)," the report said. "On top of that, Austin also topped the rankings for its percentage of college-educated residents and its consulting firms, which provide vital support for burgeoning enterprises."

The top 10 best cities to start a new business are:

  • No. 1 – Phoenix, Arizona
  • No. 2 – San Antonio, Texas
  • No. 3 – Dallas, Texas
  • No. 4 – Fort Worth, Texas
  • No. 5 – Jacksonville, Florida
  • No. 6 – San Diego, California
  • No. 7 – Houston, Texas
  • No. 8 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • No. 9 – Chicago, Illinois
  • No. 10 – Los Angeles, California
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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Top Houston space news of 2025 soars with NASA deals, lunar missions

Year in Review

Editor's note: As 2025 comes to a close, we're looking back at the stories that defined Houston innovation this year. The space tech sector soared with companies landing huge NASA contracts and furthering their lunar missions. Here are the 10 biggest Houston space tech stories of the year:

Houston native picked for 2025 class of NASA astronaut candidates

Houston native Anna Menon, posing below the first A in “NASA,” is one of 10 new NASA astronaut candidates. Photo courtesy NASA.

NASA has selected 10 new astronaut candidates, including one whose hometown is Houston, for its 2025 training class. The candidates will undergo nearly two years of training before they can assume flight assignments.

Intuitive Machines lands $9.8M to complete orbital transfer vehicle

Intuitive Machines expects to begin manufacturing and flight integration on its orbital transfer vehicle as soon as 2026. Photo courtesy Intuitive Machines.

Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which rang the NASDAQ opening bell July 31, secured a $9.8 million Phase Two government contract for its orbital transfer vehicle. The contract will push the project through its Critical Design Review phase, which is the final engineering milestone before manufacturing can begin.

Houston tech company tapped by NASA for near space initiative

Intuitive Machines is among four companies awarded contracts for NASA’s Near Space Network. Photo via intuitivemachines.com

In January, Intuitive Machines nailed down a NASA deal to expand the agency’s communications network for spacecraft. Additionally, NASA completed the first round of “human in the loop” testing for Intuitive Machines’ Moon RACER lunar terrain vehicle at the agency’s Johnson Space Center. RACER (Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover) is one of three commercially developed unpressurized lunar terrain vehicles being considered for NASA’s Artemis lunar initiative.

Texas Space Commission doles out $5.8 million to Houston companies

Axiom Space and FluxWorks are the latest Houston-area companies to receive funding from the Texas Space Commission. Photo via Getty Images.

Two Houston-area companies landed more than $5.8 million in funding from the Texas Space Commission. The commission granted up to $5.5 million to Houston-based Axiom Space and up to $347,196 to Conroe-based FluxWorks in June 2025. The two-year-old commission previously awarded $95.3 million to 14 projects. A little over $34 million remains in the commission-managed Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund.

Houston company awarded $2.5B NASA contract to support astronaut health and space missions

NASA has awarded KBR a five-year, $2.5 billion Human Health and Performance Contract. Photo courtesy NASA.

Houston-based technology and energy solution company KBR was awarded a $2.5 billion NASA contract to support astronaut health and reduce risks during spaceflight missions. Under the terms of the Human Health and Performance Contract 2, KBR will provide support services for several programs, including the Human Research Program, International Space Station Program, Commercial Crew Program, Artemis campaign and others. This will include ensuring crew health, safety, and performance; occupational health services and risk mitigation research for future flights.

Houston engineering firm lands $400M NASA contract

Bastion Technologies has been tapped to provide safety and mission services for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Photo via nasa.gov.

NASA granted Houston-based Bastion Technologies Inc. the Safety and Mission Assurance II (SMAS II) award with a maximum potential value of $400 million. The award stipulates that the engineering and technical services company provide safety and mission services for the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Houston startups win NASA funding for space tech projects

Houston startups were recently named among the nearly 300 recipients that received a portion of $44.85 million from NASA to develop space technology. Photo via NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Three Houston startups were granted awards from NASA in July 2025 to develop new technologies for the space agency. The companies were among nearly 300 recipients that received a total agency investment of $44.85 million through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I grant programs.

Texas Republicans are pushing to move NASA headquarters to Houston

Here's why Texas Republicans think NASA's headquarters should move to Texas in 2028. File photo.

Two federal lawmakers from Texas spearheaded a campaign to relocate NASA’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to the Johnson Space Center in Houston’s Clear Lake area. Houston faces competition on this front, though, as lawmakers from two other states are also vying for this NASA prize. With NASA’s headquarters lease in D.C. set to end in 2028, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, and U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, a Republican whose congressional district includes the Johnson Space Center, wrote a letter to President Trump touting the Houston area as a prime location for NASA’s headquarters.

Intuitive Machines to acquire NASA-certified deep space navigation company

Intuitive Machines will acquire Kinetx, which marks its entry into the precision navigation and flight dynamics segment of deep space operations. Photo via Getty Images.

In August 2025, Intuitive Machines agreed to buy Tempe, Arizona-based aerospace company KinetX for an undisclosed amount. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year. KinetX specializes in deep space navigation, systems engineering, ground software and constellation mission design. It’s the only company certified by NASA for deep space navigation. KinetX’s navigation software has supported both of Intuitive Machines’ lunar missions.

Axiom Space launches semiconductor and astronaut training initiatives

Axiom Space chief astronaut Michael López-Alegría (left) trains with Axiom’s new “Project Astronaut,” Emiliano Ventura. Photo courtesy of Axiom Space.

In fall 2025, Axiom Space, a Houston-based commercial spaceflight and space infrastructure company, launched initiatives in two very different spheres — semiconductors and astronaut training.

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