Axiom Space is in crisis mode.

Fly’m Crisis

Axiom Space, the space company NASA picked to develop a private successor to the International Space Station, is in big trouble. As Forbes reports, the startup is struggling to pay the bills and has laid off at least a hundred employees, while cutting the pay of those who remain.

That leaves its plan to develop a module that can dock with the ISS before detaching to form its own space station on thin ice. And the clock is ticking, because the ISS is set to be retired by NASA in 2030, two years sooner than anticipated.

In other words, the company is quickly running out of time and is years behind schedule. As a result, Axiom Space was forced to “radically change the design” of the station, per Forbes.

However, according to Forbes‘ reporting, investors are balking at funding the development of a much smaller station that could end up being less commercially lucrative — and possibly even more expensive.

“The business model had to change,” one former employee told Forbes, “and that has continued to make it challenging for the company to get around its cash flow issues.”

On Life Support

To bring in some much-needed cash, Axiom Space started selling seats for trips to the ISS on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.

It was also awarded a NASA contract to fund a space suit for the first crewed mission to the lunar surface, Artemis III.

But the suit appears to have been a massive distraction — not to mention a major money pit — from its plans to build a space station. SpaceX trips to the existing orbital outpost were also not a sustainable solution to Axiom Space’s woes.

“Turns out that there’s not a lot of billionaires that want to set aside their life for 18 months to go train to be an astronaut for the ISS,” a former Axiom executive told Forbes.

Meanwhile, Axiom Space’s billionaire CEO Kam Ghaffarian has reportedly been propping up the company with his own funds to keep it afloat.

But despite his best efforts, Ghaffarian admitted to Forbes that the company had laid off “about 100” employees this year. Existing employees were hit with pay cuts of up to 20 percent.

Axiom Space has also lost several key executives this year, suggesting significant turmoil behind closed doors.

Where all of this leaves the company’s plans to build a private space station remains to be seen. Axiom Space is only one of a number of companies contracted by NASA to develop a replacement after the ISS is retired in 2030.

NASA will narrow down that number sometime next year. According to Ars Technica‘s sources, the agency may choose at least two companies for a second phase.

But whether Axiom Space will make the cut remains to be seen. Its financial woes will likely complicate matters considerably.

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