COLORADO SPRINGS—Space robotics startup Gitai has established a defense subsidiary aimed at winning contracts as a prime contractor from the U.S. Defense Department and NASA.
Gitai was started in Japan, but the company moved most employees and its headquarters to Torrance, California and established Gitai USA in 2023. The company specializes in robotic arms, lunar rovers and servicing spacecraft.
Despite moving to the U.S., Gitai says certain U.S. Defense Department and NASA solicitations require that prime contractors be majority-owned or controlled by U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
The company formed Gitai Defense and Space to meet those criteria. The subsidiary is structured under a voting trust that is 51% owned by a U.S. trust company and 49% by Gitai USA. The new subsidiary is incorporated in Delaware.
“The new subsidiary will focus on supporting national security missions, particularly by providing satellite buses for defense-oriented constellations and on-orbit servicing solutions powered by Gitai's proprietary robotics technologies,” the company says.
Gitai's specialty is robotic arms, but it also is interested in developing spacecraft. For instance, in January, Gitai said it had completed the demonstration of its in-house-developed 16U cubesat, called SC1. That satellite is a forerunner to the company developing small satellites for low-Earth-orbit Earth-observation missions.