“I hope to send an Armenian into space one day”: Kam Ghaffarian on the future of space exploration

The nearest star to us beyond the Solar System lies more than four light-years away from Earth. At the speeds achieved by today's spacecraft, it would take thousands of years to reach it. Yet Kam Ghaffarian, an Iranian-born American engineer and entrepreneur who has devoted much of his career to turning ambitious ideas into technological ventures, envisions a very different timeframe for such a journey: just six months. Such a claim contradicts our current understanding of physics. The assertion that humans could reach Proxima Centauri in just six months should be treated as a proposition that still needs to be substantiated through scientific calculations, independent scientific review and, ultimately, experimentation. Nevertheless, it reflects the scale of Ghaffarian’s ambitions and his determination to push the boundaries of what we consider possible.

Kam Ghaffarian will arrive in Yerevan in the coming days to receive Armenia’s 2026 State Award for Global Contribution to Humanity through High-Tech. His decades-long career spans a wide range of fields, from developing innovative nuclear energy solutions to advancing commercial space exploration.

As the co-founder and executive chairman of X-energy, he is working to advance nuclear technologies that could provide power both on Earth, particularly for the new artificial intelligence data centers under construction, and for spacecraft involved in space exploration.

Another company he co-founded, Axiom Space, aims to build a commercial space station by the end of this decade, ahead of the planned retirement of the International Space Station. Through yet another company he co-founded, Intuitive Machines, Ghaffarian has helped bring commercial lunar exploration into a new era. In February 2024, the company’s Odysseus lunar lander became the first commercial spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon and the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Ghaffarian's fascination with space began much earlier, during his childhood, when he witnessed the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The event had a profound influence on his choice of career. Decades later, that childhood inspiration has evolved into a far-reaching ambition: to make space more accessible, develop new sources of energy and ultimately take humanity beyond the boundaries of the Solar System.

In an interview with Armenpress on the sidelines of the STARMUS VIII festival, held on the Spanish island of Tenerife, Ghaffarian also spoke about the possibility of sending an Armenian astronaut into space, saying he could help make this ambitious undertaking a reality. In his view, such an achievement would represent not only a significant technological milestone for Armenia but also a source of inspiration for an entire generation.

Armenpress: I couldn’t help noticing your surname, so I have to ask: do you have any Armenian ancestry?

Kam Ghaffarian: I believe that. I was born in Iran, I'm Iranian, of course, but yeah, some of the family members, I believe, have Armenian [roots]. That's where my name is, Ghaffarian. That’s why I am looking forward to visiting Armenia. 

You’re investing in a future where people can live and work in space. From where we stand today, how realistic is that vision, and how soon could it become a reality?

It's very realistic that we're going to create an environment where people will be working and living in space sooner than you believe. I mean, people have been living onboard the space station for the last 26 years, right? I was one of the people who was involved in developing the space station. When the astronauts from space talked to Houston, they would say, "Houston, we have a problem," or whatever, they were my company employees that responded.

This is growing really, really fast, and I think that there are going to be more people living and working in space on a regular basis.

You mentioned the space station. We know that the International Space Station will end its operations by the end of 2030, and Axiom Space is working on a commercial space station. Who do you envision using this new station? Will it primarily serve governments and researchers, or will there also be room for private individuals who want to experience life in orbit?

All of the above. You know, we're going to be working with a lot of governments.  So today the International Space Station belongs to, of course, NASA, which is the United States, Russia, European countries, Japan, and Canada, right? So in the future, it's going to belong to the private industry, like Axiom Space. And then we will have people who will buy services from us. The United States will be one of our anchor tenants, but European countries — hopefully Armenia, many other countries. Hopefully one day I take an Armenian astronaut. I took a Turkish astronaut to space. And, you know, taking the astronaut to space inspires the whole population.

So when I go there, I'm hoping that I will persuade the Armenian government to say 'we're going to send an Armenian to space,' sponsored by the government, and I can help with that.

In the future, all the governments will buy services from us, but also commercial, because we're going to do manufacturing in space of things that it's not possible to do on Earth. And then you're going to have private astronauts that go to space and it's a platform to go to other places in the solar system.

When do you think commercial space exploration will be able to operate independently of governments? At the moment, most companies in the sector rely on government contracts or partnerships. Do you see a future in which private companies can operate entirely on their own?

I believe so. It's okay to have government as a customer. I mean, Apple, for example, or Google, they're commercial companies. Government is just one of their customers. Airlines are commercial airlines, but government can come buy services. So in the future, it will be like that. It's a commercial entity. One of our customers is going to be government, but it's not the only one.

Coming back to Axiom Space, are you planning to build a completely new space station from scratch, or will you use existing infrastructure already in orbit?

No, we're going to start brand new. We are doing it right now.

Have you already started?

Oh, yeah. We're building everything, but we'll be launching our space station in 2028 to 2029 timeframe.

And how big is it going to be?

The current space station, the way it was built, it was not modular. The way we're designing ours is going to be very modular, so that each module is on its own. We can have 50 modules, 60 modules, 100 modules that are connected like Legos together. They're interconnected. But once one module goes bad, we can deorbit that module and send another one out.

Will you be relying on companies like SpaceX to support your missions?

Yes, of course. We are currently using SpaceX, but we're going to be working with many other companies.

In your view, what should be humanity’s ultimate destination in space?

The ultimate destiny for humanity I believe it's to go to other stars. Not our solar system, but beyond our solar. Humanity's destiny is to become interstellar. The ultimate destiny.

But with current technologies, it is impossible.

It is possible, but we need more time to develop more engineering, more science.

But it's a one-way direction, right?

No, not necessarily, if we develop technology. Because you see, like, for example, if you want to go to our closest star Proxima Centauri, Proxima Centauri is 4 and a quarter light years. The distance from one part of our galaxy to another is 100,000 light years. So just go 4 and a quarter. If we go with the nuclear technology, it takes 2,000 years? And if you go with the nuclear fusion technology, it might take 100 years. We want to do it such a way you can go in 6 months.

Is it even possible?

Yes. We're working on it.

What excites you most about space exploration?

What excites me is how it unifies humanity, how it brings us together. I believe that we become so divisive, and tribal. Everything is a separation from religion or country or national birth or political party. What excites me is to bring the whole humanity together, and we realize that we all really are one.

Don't you think that even in that case politics could still get in the way…

Yeah, but I think if we want to be interstellar, I want you to imagine this. We go outside our solar system, and in our galaxy called Milky Way, there are 400 billion stars. We're just one star. And there are so many other planets, and it's 100,000 years across. Let's say we leave our galaxy behind. There are 2 trillion other galaxies. 2 trillion. Just — just think about this.

When my son was 8 years old, he asked me, "Dad, how vast is the universe?" So I gave him what Carl Sagan said, which is, if you look at all the oceans on Earth, all the deserts everywhere, right, and look at all the grains of sand everywhere, our solar system is just one grain.

Just think how vast the universe is. And I think our destiny is to go and explore that, and go there.

The Armenpress coverage of the STARMUS festival is supported by Team Telecom Armenia.