Vast announced plans in September to develop large rotating space stations that would generate artificial gravity, but has disclosed few details about its plans. Haot, who as president will oversee work on those stations, said the company would release a “more concrete plan” in the near future. “There will be many stepping stones.”McCaleb, a crypt-oh-currency billionaire, is self-funding Vast through its initial phases of development. “I want to keep it self-funded until we have a station in space and a clear path to revenue,” he said. “I don’t want to be in a situation where I am beholden to investors.” He has not announced how much he plans to invest, but said in the interview it would be on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Now it seems clear that McCaleb is genuinely interested in making a run at this. An early pioneer in blockchain technology, McCaleb created Mt. Gox, the first major Bitcoin exchange. He is estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.5 billion and has vowed to invest at least $300 million into Vast Space as it seeks to develop space stations.
By this, I mean he is willing to commit some of his fortune to the concept, whereas the other companies may have less ready money to devote to these ventures and will need to go and raise funds from other investors. Even Blue Origin, with Bezos' backing, is probably somewhat limited. Three sources have told Ars that while he is supportive of the company's Orbital Reef station project, Bezos would prefer most of the funding come from NASA or other potential customers.
Announcing the Haven-1 and Vast-1 missions to low-Earth orbit. Launched by @SpaceX, Haven-1 is scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station and will be visited by a crew of four aboard a Dragon spacecraft during Vast-1 → https://www.vastspace.com/updates/vast-announces-the-haven-1-and-vast-1-human-spaceflight-mission-launched-by-spacex-on-a-dragon-spacecraft
Anyone know the diameter of the station?
Anybody getting a Dragon XL vibe here...
Quote from: Asteroza on 05/11/2023 12:05 amAnybody getting a Dragon XL vibe here...No. I’m getting a Salyut/Tianggong
The Vast-1 crew selection process is underway and the crew will be announced at a future date. Once finalized, SpaceX will provide crew training on Falcon 9 and the Dragon spacecraft, emergency preparedness, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial and full mission simulations including docking and undocking for return to Earth.Vast’s long-term goal is to develop a 100-meter-long multi-module spinning artificial gravity space station launched by SpaceX’s Starship transportation system. In support of this, Vast will explore conducting the world’s first spinning artificial gravity experiment on a commercial space station with Haven-1.This new partnership between Vast and SpaceX will continue to create and accelerate greater accessibility to space and more opportunities for exploration on the road to making humanity multiplanetary.
It is really exciting to see this announcement. The more commercial missions to space the better. It may not seem it in the moment, but the final frontier is slowly opening. Congrats Vast & @SpaceX on the big announcement 🚀
Thank you @rookisaacman - your pioneering work with @inspiration4x and the @PolarisProgram is a large part of our inspiration and drive to build Haven-1. We look forward to Polaris Dawn.
