Beyond that, Gravitics is aiming to fulfill the ongoing needs of these stations once they are operational, plus meeting organic demand that the company is betting will emerge as costs for launching cargo and crew drop. StarMax will have power and propulsion onboard for delivery and docking (and indeed, the company landed Virgin Orbit’s former senior director of propulsion, Scott Macklin, as its director of engineering).“What we’re guessing is going to happen is that station demand is going to grow,” Doughan said. For all the talk of Starship, the company isn’t putting all its eggs in that one, Musk-y basket. The company recently opened a 42,000-square-foot facility just north of Seattle where it has already begun constructing prototypes and preparing for early module pressure tests early next year. In addition to these physical spaces, the company will also use the funds from this seed round to continue growing its team. But it’s safe to say that the company is moving fast — as are all the companies hoping to operate the next generation of space stations — in the face of the impending decommissioning of the ISS at the end of the decade. Gravitics is also in talks with development groups in Florida about building a larger production and integration facility right next to their customer base at Kennedy Space Center.