{"id":216557,"date":"2025-10-16T05:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T05:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/216557\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T05:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T05:19:09","slug":"axiom-space-replaces-ceo-spacenews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/216557\/","title":{"rendered":"Axiom Space replaces CEO – SpaceNews"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Commercial space station developer Axiom Space has replaced its chief executive after less than six months on the job.<\/p>\n

The Houston-based company announced Oct. 15 that it hired Jonathan Cirtain as president and chief executive, a move it described as a \u201cstrategic leadership change to advance the company\u2019s development of critical space infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cirtain replaces Tejpaul Bhatia, who was named chief executive April 25<\/a>. Bhatia joined Axiom as chief revenue officer in 2021 and was promoted to CEO after helping secure more than $1 billion in contracts, including the company\u2019s series of private astronaut missions to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

Cirtain is an astrophysicist who spent nearly a decade at NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center and later joined BWX Technologies, a company specializing in nuclear technologies. He held several senior positions there, including chief technology officer and senior vice president. He left in May to become president of IBX, an investment firm whose portfolio includes Axiom Space.<\/p>\n

\"Cirtain\"Jonathan Cirtain, president and CEO of Axiom Space. Credit: Axiom Space<\/p>\n

According to Cirtain\u2019s LinkedIn profile, he was named president of Axiom Space in June, but the company did not publicly announce the appointment at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis 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,\u201d Kam Ghaffarian, executive chairman of Axiom Space and founder of IBX, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

That infrastructure includes a commercial space station Axiom is developing, beginning with a module scheduled to launch in late 2027 and attach to the ISS. Axiom announced Sept. 25 that it awarded a contract to Redwire Space for the solar arrays for that module<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Axiom is also developing a spacesuit that NASA plans to use on Artemis lunar landing missions. The company intends to adapt the suit for use in low Earth orbit, including on its future space station.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next man and first woman to walk on the moon will be in an Axiom Space spacesuit, and we are building a commercial space station, what a mission and a company,\u201d Cirtain said in a social media post<\/a>. \u201cIt is an amazing engineering organization, and I am honored to serve as CEO.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leadership change came as a surprise outside the company, as Bhatia had been actively representing Axiom as recently as two weeks ago at the International Astronautical Congress, where he signed agreements such as an extension of a memorandum of understanding with the U.K. Space Agency for a potential British private astronaut mission.<\/p>\n

He has not commented publicly on the change, and his LinkedIn profile now lists him as an \u201cexecutive, entrepreneur, investor\u201d who most recently served as Axiom\u2019s chief executive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to extend my sincere gratitude to Tejpaul Bhatia for his years of service to Axiom Space, as well as his contributions during his tenure as CEO, steering the company through a significant transition period,\u201d Ghaffarian said.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Commercial space station developer Axiom Space has replaced its chief executive after less than six months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[55923,49,48,66,6089,306],"class_list":{"0":"post-216557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-axiom-space","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sn","13":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}