Robert D. “Bob” Cabana, a former NASA astronaut, NASA Associate Administrator (the agency’s third highest-ranking executive) and Director of Kennedy Space Center, has joined IBX, a firm that invests in and fosters innovation in space-related companies. Founded by engineer and entrepreneur Kam Ghaffirian, IBX supports companies Ghaffirian helped found: Axiom Space, Intuitive Machines, Quantum Space and X-energy along with other ventures. Cabana will serve as a Senior Advisor with the company.

Cabana, who flew on four Shuttle missions, as pilot on STS-41 and STS-53 and mission commander on STS-65 and STS-88, has logged 38 days in space. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and served in the US Marines prior to joining NASA.

“I’m truly excited to join Kam’s innovative team at IBX, supporting the continued advancement of our nation’s space program and pushing the boundaries of technology for a brighter future on Earth and beyond,” said Cabana in a press released issued today by IBX.

Axiom Space

Axiom Space has managed the flights of three groups of astronauts to the International Space Station, and has a fourth flight scheduled for later this year. They also have a contract to provide NASA with the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), a spacesuit will provide astronauts advanced capabilities to access, live and work on and around the Moon.

Axiom is also currently building the first segment of a commercial space station, Axiom Station. Working with Thales Alenia Space, fabrication is well underway with a planned launch in 2026.

Intuitive Machines

Intuitive Machines just completed their first lunar landing with IM-1, a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload System (CLPS) mission that was the first successful American landing on the Moon’s surface since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.

That mission was partially successful in that it did complete the lunar landing, but it also had issues with its lander’s navigation system that resulted with a lander on its side near the south pole of the Moon. Intuitive has another CLPS mission scheduled for later this year using another of its Nova-C landers, and the company has said that it will incorporate lessons learned to during IM-1 into its IM-2 mission planned for sometime in Q4 2024.

Quantum Space

Quantum Space is a company that plans to provide data services beyond low-Earth orbit, in geosynchronous and cislunar space. It is creating a laser-based system that will be utilized in a modular fleet of spacecraft that will incorporate external payloads as well as data collection based on its own systems.

The QS-1 spacecraft — Ranger — launch is ostensibly scheduled for late 2024 and will include off-the-shelf processor and navigation electronics provided by Beyond Gravity, a subsidiary of RUAG. According to the company, “Ranger is powered by storable chemical propulsion and can transport rideshare payloads, from cubesats to larger OTV [Orbital Test Vehicles.]”

X-energy

X-energy is a reactor and fuel design engineering company. It is developing a Generation IV high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed nuclear reactor design that do not rely on active systems or power to ensure reactor safety. They are also developing a new reactor fuel called TRISO-X that can withstand four times the temperature of current nuclear fuel, but is priced similarly to those older materials.

A completed TRISO-X unit is about the size of a billiards ball, and is filled with tiny particles of enriched fuel that is triple-wrapped in a high temperature carbon ceramic material that makes the unit self-contained, meltdown-proof and mechanically resilient unit. Compared to current nuclear fuel rods, it is far safer, making it an ideal candidate for the next generation of nuclear reactors.

Based in Rockwell, Maryland, X-energy has received grants from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance X-energy’s reactor development program. In March 2023, X-energy and Dow Inc agreed to develop a grid-scale next-generation Xe-100 nuclear reactor at one of Dow’s sites on the Gulf Coast of the US.

Undoubtedly, Cabana’s experience and expertise will quite an asset to IBX and the companies it is invested in, and also undoubtedly, Cabana will be a busy man, given all of the activities that these companies are taking part in.