Vast Welcomes Veteran NASA Astronaut Dr. Andrew J. Feustel As Its Newest Human Spaceflight AdvisorDECEMBER 12, 2023LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIALong Beach, Calif. (December 12, 2023) – Vast, a pioneer in space habitation technologies, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Andrew J. (Drew) Feustel as its newest advisor. Dr. Feustel is a veteran NASA Astronaut with 23 years of experience, most recently as NASA’s acting Chief Astronaut. Prior to that role, he served as the Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office from 2020 to 2022. Dr. Feustel joins an esteemed list of advisors at Vast, which includes veteran NASA astronaut Dr. Garrett Reisman.Dr. Feustel’s spaceflight experience includes three space missions. In 2011, he flew on the penultimate Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-134. In 2009, he flew on the STS-125 Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. Most recently, in 2018, he flew on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the ISS, serving as Commander during Expedition 56 on a 197 day mission.“I am honored to be collaborating with the dynamic team at Vast. They have a compelling vision for developing a private commercial space station in low-Earth orbit, and I plan to play a contributing role in reaching that significant milestone in human exploration,” said Dr. Feustel. “These efforts are critical for establishing a global human space economy, which will enable our species to explore further and further from our home planet.”Dr. Feustel began his career in the Canadian mining industry and later worked at the ExxonMobil Exploration Corporation in Houston, Texas, as an exploration geophysicist before joining the NASA Astronaut Corps in 2000.“We look forward to working with Drew on some key design trades where practical spaceflight and user experience is vital to guide our engineering teams, and utilize his wealth of knowledge executing our future crewed missions,” said Alex Hudson, CTO.Dr. Feustel holds a Ph.D. from Queen’s University specializing in Seismology. He also holds a Master of Science in Geophysics and a Bachelor of Science in Solid Earth Sciences from Purdue University, and an Associate Science degree from Oakland Community College.“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Feustel to our team and look forward to learning from his expansive spaceflight experience,” said Max Haot, CEO. For those interested in learning more about Vast-1 mission availability and future missions, please visit https://www.vastspace.com/reserve.
Our logo just went up on our Long Beach HQ! This building is one of two adjacent buildings totaling 115,000 sq ft of office, advanced manufacturing, and integration space. We’re making significant progress inside too — stay tuned.
We are honored to announce that Peter Russell-Clarke, an industrial designer and educator renowned for his design work at Apple, has joined our team as an advisor.Over his nearly 20 year tenure at Apple, Peter was instrumental in the design of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches, as well as the Apple Park headquarters and consumer stores. He has also worked with other top brands including Nike, Swatch, and Nokia.We couldn't be more excited to welcome Peter to our team as we build out an Industrial Design team, ensuring that industrial design is embedded into the core of our engineering design process.Read the full press release →
2023 was a pivotal year for Vast. In our second year since founding, we:🎙️ Announced our first space station, Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station when it launches no earlier than August 2025🚀 Revealed our @SpaceX launch partnership to launch both Haven-1 and the first crewed expedition, Vast-1👥 Grew our team from 31 to 285 team members🛰️ Acquired the space startup @Launcher and a test facility at the Mojave Air and Space Port🌊 Moved our headquarters to Long Beach, CA🧑🚀 Grew our esteemed list of advisors to include two veteran NASA astronauts — Dr. Andrew J. Feustel (@Astro_Feustel) and Dr. Garrett Reisman (@astro_g_dogg) — and Peter Russell-Clarke, a renowned Apple Industrial DesignerNow 20 months out from the launch of Haven-1, we are making significant progress on its design, development, and build. Stay tuned for what’s to come in 2024.And be sure to check out our open positions: vastspace.com/careers
Max Haot, CEO of Vast, says his space station company will be bidding to fly the Private Astronaut Missions 5 and 6 for NASA. (To date, Axiom Space has flown the first three).
The tweet from VAST itself:QuoteVast is excited to announce that we will compete to offer NASA private astronaut missions to the ISS. Diversity of providers will enhance competition and give customers more options. It will also help transfer critical ISS expertise from NASA to more potential commercial LEO destination providers. For Vast, it will leverage the team and capability we are building for Haven-1 and give us an opportunity to perform a crewed mission with NASA — proving capabilities such as customer sales, crew training, medical, mission ops and management, payload integration, IT security and control room infrastructure.
Vast is excited to announce that we will compete to offer NASA private astronaut missions to the ISS. Diversity of providers will enhance competition and give customers more options. It will also help transfer critical ISS expertise from NASA to more potential commercial LEO destination providers. For Vast, it will leverage the team and capability we are building for Haven-1 and give us an opportunity to perform a crewed mission with NASA — proving capabilities such as customer sales, crew training, medical, mission ops and management, payload integration, IT security and control room infrastructure.
Both the axiom and the vast missions to ISS prepare them for their own space stations, and having multiple space stations indeed is better competition
So now a customer can buy a Crew Dragon mission from SpaceX directly, or from Axiom, or from Vast. This does not seem like "enhanced competition", but maybe it is.
Quote from: DanClemmensen on 02/22/2024 03:00 pmSo now a customer can buy a Crew Dragon mission from SpaceX directly, or from Axiom, or from Vast. This does not seem like "enhanced competition", but maybe it is.You can book your trip through different travel agents, even though you end up on the same airline and stay at the same hotel. If you want to, you can arrange those things yourself, or let someone else handle the fiddly annoying bits. (Especially, in this case, negotiating with the ISS managers to be allowed to stay at ISS.)
Quote from: Paul451 on 02/22/2024 10:27 pmQuote from: DanClemmensen on 02/22/2024 03:00 pmSo now a customer can buy a Crew Dragon mission from SpaceX directly, or from Axiom, or from Vast. This does not seem like "enhanced competition", but maybe it is.You can book your trip through different travel agents, even though you end up on the same airline and stay at the same hotel. If you want to, you can arrange those things yourself, or let someone else handle the fiddly annoying bits. (Especially, in this case, negotiating with the ISS managers to be allowed to stay at ISS.)Agreed. However, the announcement looks like a travel agency trying make itself look like an airline.
Odd one out: Vast did not receive NASA funding for the first batch of Commercial LEO Destination (CLD) contracts—which includes Voyager/Nanoracks, Axiom, and Blue Origin—but the company hopes to eventually be included in the program. “We certainly want to compete for that, and I think we’re a really good fit for what they’re looking for,” Vast’s founder Jed McCaleb told Payload in a 2022 interview.
Our Haven-1 aluminum primary structure manufacturing is underway. Designed, manufactured, and tested in house in the 🇺🇸.
Welcoming @Hillarycoe as our Chief Marketing and Design Officer at Vast. Hillary is an Emmy-winning design leader who pioneered visual strategies for SpaceX’s human spaceflight for NASA’s Commercial Crew program. She’s also led innovative design for Google, Apple, and Starlink.vastspace.com/team
Ever wonder what it takes to build a space station?Take a tour at our Long Beach facility. Six months ago, this was a mostly empty building. Now we are designing, manufacturing, assembling and testing the world’s first commercial station. All under one roof.
