ISS demonstration: A tow truck for space.

Summary

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T-Minus Space Daily — “ISS demonstration: A tow truck for space”

Podcast: T-Minus Space Daily by N2K Networks
Episode Date: February 28, 2026
Host: Maria Varmazes
Featured Guest: Troy Morris, CEO & Co-founder, KMI (Cal Morris Inc.)
Theme: In-space robotics and the future of space tow-truck technology — a recap of KMI’s landmark ISS demonstration and a look ahead to operational and business growth.

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on KMI’s breakthrough demonstration of their articulated “tow truck for space” arms aboard the International Space Station, with an in-depth interview featuring company CEO Troy Morris. The conversation explores the technical and operational success of the demonstration, its implications for orbital servicing and space debris management, and KMI's strategy for scaling impact—from future government contracts to STEM education outreach. The episode also opens with major NASA Artemis program news, setting the broader space innovation context.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

NASA Artemis Program Shake-Up

• Artemis 3 Mission Update:
  • Artemis 3 will no longer aim for a lunar landing in its 2027 mission; instead, its focus shifts to a “test mission in low Earth orbit” to validate future lunar landing systems. (00:58)
  • Artemis 4, now aiming for 2028 or later, is expected to resume the actual lunar landing goal.
  • NASA’s new direction places a renewed emphasis on standardization (SLS/Orion configuration) and in-house technical expertise, reminiscent of the Apollo/Saturn V era.
  • Quote:

    “A lot of us had been wondering when someone was going to step up and be the adult in the room and say that the Artemis plan previously announced was not really realistic… a lot of people, myself included, are impressed and relieved, and of course this all sounds great... it needs to be funded.” — Maria Varmazes (02:00)

KMI ISS Demonstration — The “Tow Truck for Space” (03:08–08:20)

Achievements in 2025

• Over 200 days of testing inside the ISS: Four large articulated arms were used by astronaut Suni Williams and crew to capture “unprepared objects” — effectively showcasing a practical space tow truck.
• Hands-on involvement: Suni Williams, after her mission, also visited KMI in Michigan and engaged with local schoolchildren.
• Memorable moment:

  “We went cliff jumping together into Lake Superior… In her flight suit, Suni Williams, who recently just retired, went swimming with us and then went to an event still that night. That’s amazing. Awesome human through and through.” — Troy Morris (04:52)

Technical Takeaways

• “It works.” KMI’s REACH arms on Astro Bee were able “to successfully capture unprepared objects” of various sizes, rotation rates, and surfaces—including with one arm intentionally disabled, proving system redundancy. (05:29–06:21)
• Extensive testing:
  • Six test sessions led to 172 unique test scenarios (vs. planned four sessions and 10 use cases).
  • Testing edge cases: sensor changes, varied speeds, partial system failures.
  • Engineered confidence for future operational missions.
• Quote:

  “Mobility in space, maneuvering in space, and being the tow truck for space — that is the key message.” — Troy Morris (07:23)

Data and Scientific Value

• KMI generated massive sensor and video datasets, with a public summary and more detailed proprietary reports for customers.
• Quote:

  “We learned so many different things that I honestly wish we had a dedicated team or university to go through it...” — Troy Morris (05:29)

Future Plans & Government Engagement (07:34–08:20, 12:13–13:24)

• KMI is in the final stages of securing a “very significant funding contract with the US government,” with details to be publicized in Q2 2026.
• Goal: Become the “offering for everyone,” across national security, civilian, and commercial space segments.
• Business expansion: Building teams, closing out funding, growing in Michigan (“the Forge”), Los Angeles (“the Bridge”), and establishing a D.C. presence.

Educational Outreach & Community Impact (09:39–11:46)

• KMI team roots: Unlike most aerospace startups, founders did not originate from SpaceX, Blue Origin, or military backgrounds; strong academic roots and first-principles problem solving.
• Passionate about paying forward opportunities:
  • Hosting Suni Williams and Anna Fisher for local school and university events, media interviews, and hands-on STEM engagement.
  • Bringing rare, tactile knowledge to students (even “what it smells like when our machine operates in space”).
  • Mentoring and connecting directly with “the next Suni Williams or Walter Cronkite.”
• Quote:

  “Anytime we can extend that one or more steps beyond us. Absolutely. Easy done.” — Troy Morris (10:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On ISS demo outcomes:

  “When you plan for four test sessions, hope to get 10 units of testing, and you end up with 172... our team was really scratching at the edge cases...” — Troy Morris (06:22)

• On astronaut Suni Williams’s unique contributions:

  “When most companies do a space test, you don’t have an attending astronaut standing by. So Suni was able to share those intimate details — what it smells like. Like power tools.” — Troy Morris (10:40)

• On company ethos:

  “We came from first principles… from the moment we could hold our head up and look at the stars, how the heck do we get to do this?” — Troy Morris (10:01)

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Timestamps — Key Segments

• 00:58–03:08 — NASA Artemis update: Re-tooling and new focus on sustainable lunar cadence
• 03:08–04:52 — Introduction to KMI/ISS demo, astronaut Suni Williams’s community involvement
• 04:52–07:23 — Technical demonstration details: redundancy, edge cases, test results
• 07:23–08:20 — Future contracts and business expansion
• 09:39–11:46 — KMI’s educational outreach and giving back to the space community
• 12:13–13:24 — Wrapping up: business milestones, expansion, and future announcements

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Conclusion

This episode paints an energizing picture of a new era in space robotics: with KMI successfully proving in-orbit capture technology, the dream of an orbital tow truck is moving from science fiction to operational reality. The company’s emphasis on both technical rigor and inclusive, educational culture stands out, as does their ambition to serve the entire space ecosystem. NASA’s Artemis refocus and KMI’s homegrown progress both point to a “back to fundamentals” era — aspiring to reliability, repeatability, and an engaged next generation for space.

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Transcript

[A]

You're listening to the Cyberwire Network powered by N2K. This episode is brought to you by Indeed. Stop waiting around for the perfect candidate. Instead, use Indeed sponsored Jobs to find the right people with the right skills fast. It's a simple way to make sure your listing is the first candidate. C According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs have four times more applicants than non sponsored jobs. So go build your dream team today with Indeed. Get a $75 sponsor job credit@ Indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Okay everybody, let's all catch our breath from the latest news from NASA about Artemis 2 and beyond because that was a seismic press release led by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. Back on Friday, February 27, Artemis 2 is back in the VAB getting that helium issue of its chucked out. But but the top line news is that Artemis 3 is now no longer going to be a lunar landing mission. Instead it is going to be a 2027 test mission in low Earth orbit to validate future moon landing systems. In 2028, presumably, lunar landings will be Artemis 4 and beyond. And NASA's new stated goal is to beef up its in house technical expertise in order to get a regular flight cadence to the Moon and which will now, by the way, use a standardized space launch system and Orion configuration to reduce risk. A bit akin to how things were with Apollo and the Saturn 5. So with Artemis now, we're looking at lots more missions, a hopeful reduction in complexity with the SLS moving forward, a faster lunar mission cadence one onto the other. Thank you. Next. Now, a lot of us had been wondering when someone was going to step up and be the adult in the room and and say that the Artemis plan previously announced was not really realistic. And on Friday that day came and I think it's safe to say a lot of people, myself included, are impressed and relieved and of course this all sounds great. But to see any of this actually happen, it needs to be funded. And that is where it's gonna get tricky. But on Friday anyway, it was very nice to hear NASA get some of its swagger back. More of that. Today is March 1, 2026. I'm Maria Varmazes and this is T minus. Speaking of doing awesome things with aplomb, let's catch up with a friend of the show.

[B]

Now.

[A]

It's always nice to do, especially when they have had a highly successful demonstration of their articulated grabbing arms aboard the International Space Station with none other than astronaut Suni Williams on her extended stay Starliner sojourn. After all, cleaning up space is not an easy job, but someone has got to do it and and Cal Morris Inc. Are just the ones to get it done. So here is my recent chat with Troy Morris, who is the CEO and co founder of space logistics company kmi. And our conversation was recorded at Commercial Space Week in Orlando, Florida. And we start our chat with what KMI has been up to since their in space demo aboard the ISS last year.

[B]

I'm Troy Morris. I am the co founder and CEO for kmi, one of three co founders and excited to be here.

[A]

So to recap for our audience members, you all have had a really good busy 2025. Yeah, just catch us up to speed because I don't want to downplay it. You guys did a lot of cool stuff last year.

[B]

Yeah. So in 2025 we had our demonstration come back from the ISS. We completed over 200 days of testing inside the International Space Station. So Suni Williams and many of her fellow crew assisted with us to have a large version of this arm, this format, so that we had four arms of a larger size so that we could go and capture unprepared objects. So demonstrating putting proof positive of a tow truck for space. So we were able to test that hundreds of times inside the space station. And so it gave us a great capability that came back. We disassembled it. We actually had Suni Williams on Earth come and visit us, hung out, met with school children. We went cliff jumping together into Lake Superior.

[A]

I saw your pictures of that, by the way. I was like, I'm kind of jealous. That's amazing.

[B]

She asked, what do you guys do for fun here in Michigan? Michigan. I was like, a lot of stuff. But this time of the year when it's warm, you know, 70 degrees, real balmy Midwest temperatures, we like, well, we could go jump in the lake. And I think her response was something along lines of, well, I'm a Navy girl, I can't say no to that. So in her flight suit, Suni Williams, who recently just retired, went swimming with us and then went to an event still that night. That's amazing. Awesome human through and through. Her and our advisor, Dr. Anna Fisher, spoke to so many students, so many people in just the best ways.

[A]

That's so awesome. I imagine you had a lot of really good data that came back from everything. So what did you learn?

[B]

We learned so many different things that I honestly wish we had a dedicated team or like university to go through it. Reams of data from the visual inputs, from the sensor inputs, from the sensing inputs. So some of the Biggest takeaways. There's a multi page report that we did produce, one version of that is releasable. But there's been much more interesting insights on another report for our customers. But some of the biggest pieces. Is that a. It works.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Let's not jump over. You know the most exciting piece here of like hey, you made a car for the first time. Well, does it work? So we were able to successfully capture unprepared objects that was at a increased rate of rotation, different surfaces, even turning one of the arms off. So we had a situation where we intentionally deployed only three of the arms to go capture the capture cube.

[A]

Really?

[B]

And we were still able to secure it. Proving out that if we had failures of the full eight arm version, we had time. So when you plan for four test sessions, hope to get 10 units of testing and you end up with 172. Because we got six test sessions right. Our team was like really scratching the edge cases of like turn it off, change the sensor, make it go faster, slower. So we were very fortunate, worked very hard to be able to test a lot of those edge cases. So as we go up into space for our full mission in the coming years here, we feel extremely confident, our customers feel confident and we can roll tape again. It's not the final game of like the super bowl, but having hundreds of hours of practice games to show your coach gives them a pretty good vote of confidence.

[A]

Oh yeah. I mean that many times you reproduce it in an experiment. I mean that's the scientific method 101. I that's exciting as heck. And I know being like please distill all this data down for me and it was a quick sound bite is extraordinarily challenging. So kudos to you.

[B]

Yeah. The key part is the KMI reach arms on Astro B. They work.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Mobility in space, maneuvering in space and being the tow truck for space, that

[A]

is the key message. Let's drive that one home. That's super important. So yeah, you're talking future looking now. So what is coming up?

[B]

Yeah, we are in process for a very significant funding contract with the US government for KMI details to hopefully be released Q2 of this year. I'm looking towards hoping April, but it's something that we've been able to move forward and convince and you know, build confidence from this demonstration, from our body of excellence, from our efficiency and you know, really be able to show we are advancing this capability. We're bringing this for the warfighter, for the commercial, for space. Everyone likes space, whether you're civilian, national security or sitting in commercial. We want to be that capability, that offering for everyone.

[A]

We'll be right back. New Year, new me. Cute, but how about New Year, new money? With Experian, you can actually take control of your finances. Check your FICO score, find ways to save and get matched with credit card offers, giving you time to power through those New Year's goals. You know you're going to crush start the year off right. Download the Experian App based on FICO Score 8 model offers an approval not guaranteed. Eligibility requirements and terms apply subject to credit check, which may impact your credit scores. Offers not available in all states. See experian.com for details. Experian, this is your fix. I am your host, Stassi Schroeder. Welcome to Tell Me Lies, the official podcast. What's the most unhinged thing of season three? Steven because he's so evil, I do

[B]

think he is misunderstood.

[A]

You see everyone face consequences. It's intoxicating. The writers just know how to trick. Yeah, there's always a twist in this show. Tell Me Lies, the official podcast, January 6th. And stream the new season of Tell Me Lies January 13th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. I want to say just sort of anecdotally, I've noticed you've also been super busy in like the educational space, academic sphere. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Because I just love the work that you've been doing and I just wanted to hear you talk about it a bit.

[B]

Yeah. So it's something that, you know, people always ask, what's the background of the KMI founders? Of the early team, I have to honestly say we didn't come out of national security. Now a third of our company now has served in the armed services, but not the original team. We didn't come out of SpaceX or Blue Origin or one of these traditional deep in aerospace places. We came out of academia.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

We came out from first principles. We came out from. We've had a passion for this from the moment we could hold our head up and look at the stars. How the heck do we get to do this? And so there's been so many folks that have given us a leg forward, an opportunity to learn more, listen in, ask questions. And so anytime we can extend that one or more steps beyond us. Absolutely. Easy done. And so I think one of the biggest ones was when we had Suni Williams and Anna Fisher up in our headquarters and we were like, oh, you're just gonna like keep them to Yourselves? Heck no. We started early. We discussed stuff, went over details, technical briefs. I know what it sounds and smells like when our machine operates.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

There's not many space.

[A]

What it smells like.

[B]

What it smells like. Because when most companies or groups do a space test, you don't have a attending astronaut standing by. So Sunny was able to share those intimate details.

[A]

What it smells like.

[B]

Like power tools. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. I just still like what a detailed. Sorry. Yeah.

[B]

So you don't know that for most things in the world. And so then we spent most of the rest day with the community.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

With those that had supported us, those that were supporting. There was junior journalists in the room. I think they're fifth through seventh grade. They've been publishing the regional paper and who knows? One of those will be the next Walter Cronkite. One of those will be the next Suni Williams. Because we absolutely were immediate of. Can we share our time?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And the NASA coordinating office, like it's. You flew her out there. Sure. But like, you can't make her do everything. But we can ask. And it was an easy ask of. Hey, do you mind if we have you share your story with these students?

[A]

That's so great.

[B]

So through small local examples, I've spoken to three different classes of three different universities of students in the last few months. So whether it's higher ed, as we're at the, you know, graduate level.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Or it's elementary, we want to give back when we can.

[A]

I love that you're doing that and not like you all aren't busy enough actually making incredible things, but that you're giving back to the community in that way. You guys have such a great story, but also incredible capabilities. So thank you. It's just been so amazing seeing all your success. Genuinely, it's been really wonderful. And hearing that you guys are just doing so well. This is really wonderful to hear. I want to make sure. Is there anything else you want to mention in the audience? Because I know we catch up every now and then, but is there anything I missed that you wanted to mention? Anything at all?

[B]

I think the two elements is, you know, we. We were very successful in 2025. I focused on the tech, but also the business side. It was something that we were able to, you know, bring in the funding partners we were looking for in 2025. Put a good wrap and a bow on that. Again, more details to come as everyone figures out exactly the wording they want in the press release.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Some people are not as quick to review and edit and copy Edit. Come on, let's burn the midnight oil. So as we get to release that, we'll be very excited to share who those new partners as part of the KMI family. And we're continuing to expand, so bringing on some new team members, some capabilities, also our presence in la. So the Bridge is. We're calling it. We're still born from the Forge of Michigan.

[A]

Michigan, that's right.

[B]

We're still from the crib, the cradle. And we're like, what if we call it the Forge? That's a little bit.

[A]

I like that.

[B]

More dull sounding than the cradle.

[A]

That's the mitten.

[B]

Because we're not in the mitten, we're in the up.

[A]

I know you're you.

[B]

So for us, the Forge is all the Midwest, you know, all of Michigan. We still have our origins there. But as we're expanding into la, where our customers, our partners, our suppliers are and then, you know, I spend a decent amount of time in D.C. as well, so. Amazing station, the Forge, the Bridge, everything gets a fun name from Laylaps on down, we try and have fun with it.

[A]

That's amazing. I'm so glad you're so busy and onward and upward to you all. A quick final note. T minus crew. While we have transitioned away from doing a daily show, we are working hard behind the scenes here on the T minus transformation. We'll have a lot more to share with you in the coming weeks, but as I have said a few times in the show in the past couple of weeks, we absolutely want to hear from you about what would be useful and enjoyable to you as we shift to a weekly show [e-mail] and that's the letter N, the number two, the letter K. Space2k.com. It is our email address and it is a great place to send your feedback. And we are reading it all, everybody. So thank you to everyone who has written in already. And please keep it coming. And that's T minus Deep Space. Brought to you by N2K CyberWire. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like our show, please share a rating and review in your podcast app or you can send an email to space2k.com we're proud that N2K CyberWire is part of the daily routine of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector. From the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies. N2K helps space and cybersecurity professionals grow, learn and stay informed. As the nexus for discovery and connection, we bring you the people, the technology and the ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn [e-mail] N2K's lead producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliot Piltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Piltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Ibin. Peter Kielby is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next week.

[B]

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[B]

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