WASHINGTON — The chief executive of commercial space station developer Vast says he supports NASA’s revised approach to supporting development of such stations, calling it the best way to avoid a gap in U.S. human presence in orbit.
Speaking Sept. 11 at the Global Aerospace Summit, Max Haot endorsed NASA’s new strategy, announced more than a month ago, that calls for multiple Space Act Agreements to support development leading to a four-person, 30-day demonstration mission.
“We think it’s really the right direction,” he said, noting it accelerates the award timeline. NASA said in a draft solicitation this month it expects to award multiple funded agreements by April 2026, months sooner than under earlier plans.
Haot also backed awarding two or three agreements. “We’ve seen in commercial crew, between Boeing and SpaceX, why it’s really critical to keep two winners, two companies competing all the way to the end,” he said. Earlier plans might have produced just one winner, likely with little or no station experience. “That’s just not wise.”
He said he also supported the 30-day demo mission, the most debated part of the new approach. Some viewed it as NASA stepping back from a permanent human presence in low Earth orbit after the International Space Station retires.
Haot disagreed, calling the demo a steppingstone to a permanently crewed station. “If you say, ‘I want permanent presence on day one,’ all you do is you delay when you see that,” he said.
NASA is expected to seek longer missions in a later phase, when it buys services from commercial stations. Angela Hart, manager of NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations program, said at a Sept. 8 industry day that it is “not NASA’s long-term goal to have only a one-month mission.”
Some in industry argue Vast benefits from the change, since it is developing Haven-1, a single-module station designed for four-person crews on several missions totaling about 40 days. Haot said the company is not altering its plans, which already included a larger Haven-2 station intended to support NASA. He emphasized Vast’s commitment to long-term human presence.
“We think it’s critical to stay in low Earth orbit, not to cede it to China,” he said. “What are we selling? The number one thing we’re selling is missions on orbit, seats and time in a space station. Of course we are incentivized and we want to sell the U.S. government full-year occupancy instead of 30 days.”
Haot said Vast expects NASA to be the anchor customer, but not the only customer. He projected 20% to 30% of revenue would come from the U.S. government, with a larger share from international partners. Private individuals, he said, would make up 10% to 15% of revenue, focused on research and exploration rather than tourism.
Companies developing stations should work to be profitable with those customers alone, he argued. Future markets, from in-space manufacturing to sponsorship and media, could be much larger, “but no one knows it if will take five years, two years or ten years.”
“Our view is, if you’re profitable in the current market, we will get to unlock that,” he said. “And that will be our upside.”