In addition to space stations, Vast says it will now build high-power satellites

As part of its plan to develop a private space station, Vast Space built and then launched a small demonstration spacecraft in early November. This vehicle then completed dozens of test objectives with flying colors before making a successful de-orbit three months later.

The mission, which tested power, propulsion, tracking, and a multitude of other technologies needed for Vast’s Haven-1 space station, was evidently so successful that the company is ready to use its spaceflight capabilities for other purposes. The Long Beach, California-based company announced Tuesday that it plans to begin selling high-powered satellite buses.

“Every single successful space company is diversified in its products,” said Max Haot, chief executive of Vast Space, in an interview. “So for us it really was a question of when, not if.”

A satellite for power-hungry applications

The company’s first offering is a 15 kW-class satellite bus capable of supporting a variety of demanding missions. Each satellite is about 3 meters long and 4 meters tall, with a mass of 700 kg and payload capacity of at least 350 kg. They will have a design lifetime of five years and be intended to operate in areas ranging from low-Earth orbit out to lunar orbit. Vast aims to serve a variety of customers, from telecommunications to observation to data services. Haot added that Vast also plans to offer an NVIDIA Space-1 Vera Rubin Module to support orbital data center inferencing needs.

The Vast satellite bus—essentially a backbone providing power, propulsion, and navigation for various payoads—will be based largely on technology ported over from the company’s Haven-1 space station, which is due to launch for the first time next year as the world’s first private space station. However there will be some new elements needed for the satellite, and Haot said Vast is already moving forward with in-house development of electric propulsion and a deployable solar array for the satellite.

Vast has already signed a customer for four satellites, with an option to purchase up to 200 additional satellites. Haot said the company is targeting a launch of at least 10 Vast Satellites in the fourth quarter of 2027.

With this new product line, Vast is entering an increasingly crowded market. Historically, in the United States, a handful of large companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Maxar, and Sierra Space have manufactured medium and large satellites. Typically these were costly and often bespoke designs that cost tens to often hundreds of millions of dollars.

But a few trends have changed the landscape in recent years. The US government’s Space Development Agency has signaled that it prefers proliferated constellations—many satellites spread out present less of a concentrated target than a few larger and more expensive satellites. With the Falcon 9 rocket’s increased cadence, as well as rideshare missions, it became easier and sometimes cheaper to get smaller and medium-size satellites into orbit.

This has led to an influx of venture capital to back a new generation of companies seeking to build less expensive, more modular satellites that could fill a variety of purposes. There are several prominent, relatively new entrants in this area including K2 Space, Rocket Lab, True Anomaly, Blue Canyon, and Millennium Space Systems.

Vast already has… vast facilities

Haot said most of these companies are still emerging, with products that are not yet mature. In other words, he believes that if Vast Space can execute, it could become a market leader, especially with applications that are power-hungry. Vast has already invested $1 billion in facilities for spacecraft manufacturing, including clean rooms, which can be used for space stations as well as satellites, he said.

The number of satellites in space has exploded in recent years, largely due to the rapid expansion of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. For decades the total number of satellites orbiting Earth numbered about 4,000, but in the last five years that number has grown to about 14,000.

This is just the beginning. By some estimates, in another decade, there will be approximately 500,000 satellites in orbit for the purpose of communications, Earth observation, orbital data centers, and other applications.

Haot expects that about 90 percent of these will be satellites built by SpaceX, Amazon, Blue Origin, or other major players. But even 10 percent of that number, if available to commercial satellite bus manufacturers, would represent 50,000 satellites for Vast and other companies to compete for.