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There’s a new space billionaire, and this is no I am interested in launching rockets. His name is Jed McCaleb, an American software developer who has made his fortune in blockchain development and cryptocurrencies. Last week, McCaleb showed he was serious about building a space station in low-Earth orbit by acquiring a small space company called Launcher.
McCaleb’s space habitation company, Vast, went public last fall with plans to build a space station that would feature artificial gravity. NASA and most other space agencies around the world have spent little time developing artificial gravity systems critical to long-term human habitation because of the detrimental effects of microgravity experienced by astronauts in international space. This was important because we were not splitting the station. Vast boasted of his three technical advisors (Hans Koenigsmann, Will Heltsley, and Yang Li) who contributed significantly to SpaceX’s success, but didn’t provide much information about its plans. .
It’s now clear that McCaleb is really interested in doing this. An early pioneer of blockchain technology, McCaleb created the first major Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox. He is estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.5 billion and has pledged to invest at least $300 million in Vast Space, which aims to develop a space station.
Spatial focus
The first wave of space billionaires, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and others, were primarily interested in launches. Their first major project at SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic was to develop a space launch system to lower the cost of access to space. McCaleb said in an interview that it’s time for a new generation of space companies to take advantage of the availability of commercial launch options.
So he’s investing in this future. Last week, Vast announced it had acquired Launcher. Launcher is a Los Angeles-based space startup that develops both a small rocket engine and an orbital tug named Orbiter. The tug, which he first launched in January on the Falcon 9 rideshare mission, was intended to carry a small number of commercial satellites into their desired orbits. However, it eventually failed due to a directional control problem caused by a failure of his GPS antenna system on Orbiter SN1. The company plans to launch his SN2 mission this summer.
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Launcher founder Max Haot approached McCaleb about investing in Launcher last year. At the time, McCaleb was putting some money into his Firefly and was considering investing in other universes. But he quickly decided that buying Launcher outright for its technology and employees might be the best option.
“I’m really impressed with the team,” said McCaleb. “And what they were building was very much in line with what was needed to build the space station. Obviously, the orbiter is a very different vehicle, but the flight computer and all that is needed on the space station. We have a lot of the same components that go into , avionics, and GNC all pretty much in common with what we ultimately need.”
Launcher’s 80 employees will join Vast’s 40 staff. McCaleb said he’s not yet ready to talk about timelines or the architecture of Vast’s proposed series of space stations. The company is still in the engineering stage and doing trade research to factor into the final design. However, he is dedicated to having some form of artificial gravity, which he considers essential to the healthy long-term human habitation in space.
“Anytime people are in space for an extended period of time, whether they’re in orbit around Mars or working on asteroid mining, they’re going to want gravity,” he said.
The race for NASA funding
However, the first iteration of Vast’s space program exists in low earth orbit. NASA continues to fund the development of a commercial space station in low Earth orbit, with Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman all competing there, and Vast will also get a portion of this funding. It’s a schedule. The company potentially has several advantages in this competition. A station with artificial gravity could be somewhat attractive to NASA, and McCaleb is more well-funded than most other ventures.
This means that while he is willing to commit a portion of his fortune to the concept, other companies may not be ready to commit to these ventures and other investments You have to raise money from home. Even Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin is probably somewhat limited. Three sources told Ars that he supports the company’s orbital reef station project, but Bezos expects most of the funding to come from his NASA or other potential clients. I hope
In terms of funding, the merger with Vast was a welcome development for Haot and Launcher.
“I’m thrilled that fundraising is no longer a challenge,” Haott said. “I used to focus about 80% of my time on it. Now, to be Jed’s partner, I don’t have to worry about that. I have to worry about the challenge of building things.” For me, it’s very exciting.”
