Vast raises $500 million to build space stations
Vast, a California startup founded by Jed McCaleb in 2021, has landed $500 million in fresh funding—$300 million in equity and $200 million in debt—to build its Haven space stations.
These are meant to take over from the International Space Station (ISS).
New investors join in
The round was led by Balerion Space Ventures, with investors like IQT, Qatar Investment Authority, Mitsui & Co., MUFG, Nikon, Stellar Ventures, Space Capital, and Earthrise Ventures joining in. Founder McCaleb also chipped in.
The board is growing too, with A.C. Charania coming on as part of this investment.
Commercial LEO stations
Vast is building commercial low Earth orbit stations for microgravity research and manufacturing.
Their first station—Haven-1—is set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2027.
After that, new Haven-2 modules will head up every six months from 2028 through 2032.
They already completed their Haven-Demo mission last November.
NASA mission on the books
NASA picked Vast for a private ISS mission no earlier than summer 2027—a big nod to their tech ambitions.
The company now has over 1,000 employees and has raised more than $1 billion so far.