TAMPA (Fla.) — GITAI, a space robotics specialist, announced April 8 that it has created a defense subsidiary at its Torrance headquarters in California to pursue prime contractor roles for U.S. Government contracts.
GITAI USA already designs and manufactures robotic arms, satellites, and rovers in the United States, after moving its headquarters from Japan to the United States in 2023. The company has also secured contracts with government agencies like DARPA.
The majority of GITAI USA shares are still held by Japanese citizens and Japanese venture-capital firms.
In order to comply with Department of Defense requirements and NASA requirements requiring that prime contractors are majority-owned or controlled U.S. citizens, or permanent residents of the United States, the new defense sub-sidiary was structured as a U.S. voting trust.
GITAI Defense and Space was set up in march. It is owned 51% by the U.S. Trust Company and 49% by GITAI USA. The company focuses on prime contracts to support national security missions.
GITAI CEO Sho Nakanose stated via email that “we are closely observing” the increased focus on space defence capabilities under the current U.S. Administration.
We aim to contribute missions involving low-Earth orbit (LEO), satellite constellations, and on-orbit maintenance, leveraging our proprietary spacecraft and robotic arm-equipped satellites developed in-house.
GITAI announced in January that it had successfully demonstrated its own satellite in LEO. This was a significant step towards more advanced spacecraft for servicing and building in space.
According to the company, the 20-kilogram 16U-sized spacecraft successfully completed all test objectives after SpaceX’s launch in December. This included capturing and transmitting video and image data.
Nakanose announced that its product line will be expanded to include 50-kilogram, and 200-kilogram platforms in order to meet the growing demand for constellation deployments.
GITAI, in addition to its defense-focused initiatives is developing robotic servicing technologies that will be used for in-orbit assembly and maintenance for commercial ventures. The company is also engaged in lunar exploration. It recently completed a study on a robotic arm for Japan’s proposed crewed moon rover. Jason Rainbow is a SpaceNews writer who covers satellite telecom, finance, and commercial markets. He has covered the global space industry for more than a decade as a journalist. He was previously Group Editor-in Chief for Finance Information Group ,… Read more by Jason Rainbow (19659017)
