Image: The Booster stage of the Starship system returning to the Texas launch pad just before being gently caught by “Mechazilla.” Credit: SpaceX.

In the early hours of October 13, SpaceX launched its fifth flight test of the gargantuan Starship system from Boca Chica, Texas. The test appears to have met its major objectives, with the first stage, called Booster, returning to the Starbase launch site, and the upper stage, called Ship, splashing down in the Indian Ocean, as planned, just over an hour later.

While the entire flight was impressive to observers, perhaps the most remarkable aspect was the daring test of the booster return system. While in planning for a few years, this was the first in-flight test, and it was successful. The first stage returned from its highest point in flight, firing its braking rockets, then plunged toward the Starbase launch tower at an almost alarming speed. Finally, Booster throttled up to nearly a hover as it righted itself and slowly settled into the landing catch arms, which SpaceX calls “chopsticks,” on the launch tower, dubbed “Mechazilla.”

“This was an astonishing display of both audacity and technical prowess,” said Dale Skran, COO and Senior Vice President of the National Space Society. “Getting this catch maneuver right on the first try is well beyond what we’re used to seeing from SpaceX, which often involves iterative test failures, and this suggests a maturity in the team and the technology beyond what may be obvious.”

Karlton Johnson, NSS CEO, said, “I’d like to congratulate the entire SpaceX team for this outstanding achievement today. They are continuing to open the space frontier at a pace beyond expectation. Special acknowledgement goes to Elon, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s President; Bill Gerstenmaier, Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability and former NASA senior executive; and Kathy Lueders, former manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and now General Manager of Starbase. They should all be quite proud of this signal achievement. Also, a tip of the hat to the Federal Aviation Administration, who has the often-challenging job of green-lighting these test flights.” NSS has had the privilege of hosting these leaders at its International Space Development Conference® (ISDC®) in the past.

NSS is thrilled with this progress and extends its support to SpaceX’s ongoing development of the Starship system and its derivatives, including NASA’s Human Landing System, for which a special Starship is being designed. “This is an example of what can happen when engineers and scientists are empowered to dare mighty things. We need more of this, not less,” Skran said. “There are many steps to go before Starship lands astronauts on the Moon, but this was a big one. We look forward to continued rapid progress, including validation of orbital refueling of the upper stage and an uncrewed lunar landing test.”

SpaceX’s Starship represents a potential revolution in affordable and rapidly reusable launch capability. “Other companies, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance, and Sierra Space are also in the running,” noted Skran. “Ultimately, the NSS looks forward to multiple competitors in low-cost, reusable launch.”

Image: Aleksandr Gorbunov (l) and Nick Hague (r) at the crew walkout; Crew-9 liftoff from SLC-40, CCSFS on Sept 28 at 1:17 pm EDT. Photos by Burt Dicht.

By Burt Dicht
NSS Managing Director of Membership

It is not often that a blog post turns out to be as prophetic as my previous post on the 45th Weather Squadron (Weathering the Launch on September 28). In that post I highlighted the squadron’s crucial role in supporting space launches—just as their skills were put to the test for Crew-9’s scheduled liftoff later that day. As the countdown began, storm patterns loomed near Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), adding an air of uncertainty with the launch scheduled for 1:17 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40)

The weather didn’t look favorable, and everyone—including the SpaceX and NASA launch teams, and thousands of spectators—watched the sky, hoping for a break. Remarkably, thanks to precise monitoring and decision-making by the 45th Weather Squadron and the launch teams, the skies cleared just in time for a flawless, on-time liftoff. The squadron’s expertise in forecasting and managing launch weather conditions was on full display, ensuring the success of Crew-9’s journey to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Crew-9 mission is a scheduled rotation flight to the ISS, utilizing the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Freedom and Falcon 9 rocket. On board were NASA astronaut Nick Hague, serving as commander, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov as mission specialist. This mission marked another significant milestone, as SLC-40 was now added to the list of operational pads sending astronauts to space, alongside LC-39A and SLC-41.

Once in orbit, the Crew-9 astronauts joined Expedition 72, temporarily boosting the ISS crew count to eleven. They joined astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who had been aboard the station since June following their Boeing Starliner launch. With NASA’s decision to return the Starliner to Earth without a crew, Wilmore and Williams will return with Crew-9 in February 2025 aboard the Crew Dragon capsule.

Notably, the mission originally included astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson rounding out the 4-person crew. However, due to mission changes that required returning Wilmore and Williams to Earth on the Crew Dragon, they will be rescheduled for future flights. That meant Hague and Gorbunov had to shoulder a larger workload during the launch. During a post launch press conference, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy congratulated and thanked the NASA and SpaceX teams as well as the international partners for working together to make this a successful launch.

For me, one of the most emotional moments of the event was witnessing the astronaut  walkout, a tradition where the crew exits the Operations and Checkout building to greet their families. This powerful display of the human side of space exploration underscores the courage and determination of the astronauts embarking on these missions.

After a smooth journey, Crew-9 docked with the ISS at 5:30 p.m. EDT on September 29, 2024. Now fully integrated into Expedition 72, the crew will spend the next five months conducting crucial scientific research and experiments in microgravity. Crew-9’s success is yet another testament to the strong partnership between NASA and SpaceX, driving forward humanity’s presence in space and advancing space development.

NASA Post Launch Press Conference. From left: Pam Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator; Ken Bowersox, Associate Administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate; Dana Hutcherson, Deputy Program Manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy; Dina Contella, Deputy Manager, International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson; Sarah Walker, Director, Dragon Mission Management, SpaceX. Photo by Burt Dicht.

Another title for this book could have been Reentry: SpaceX vs. the World. Not that there is anything wrong with the actual subtitle, but SpaceX vs. the World captures the essence of this book perfectly. How did a scrappy rocket company conquer space in a manner the world has never witnessed before?

Veteran space journalist Eric Berger tells the remarkable story of how SpaceX became the most exciting space company on Earth. Berger’s previous book, Liftoff, starts with Elon Musk’s founding of SpaceX in 2002 and ends with the first successful launch of the company’s diminutive Falcon 1 rocket in September 2008. Reentry begins just a few months later. It’s November 2008, and SpaceX is conducting a full-duration test firing of the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage. Despite several notices by SpaceX in local media, the thunderous Falcon 9 test startled the residents of nearby McGregor, Texas. This sets the tone for the book, as it wouldn’t be the last time that SpaceX would be a disrupting force.

Berger, who is also the senior space editor at Ars Technica, is among the most active space writers working today. He wrote Reentry not as a Musk book but as a book about the company itself. This makes for a book filled with many colorful stories from SpaceX lore. Examples include Capricorn One, The Great LOX Boil-Off of 2013, and Hells Bells. Even if you’re an “Occupy Mars” T-shirt wearing SpaceX fan, you will learn a lot from this book.

Berger, most likely, is one of these fans. He is very passionate about SpaceX and is often critical of the company’s rivals. If you work for a SpaceX competitor, chances are you won’t enjoy Reentry. For example, he concludes that Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s “plump and pugnacious” former space chief, “seems like he sucks.” Berger also describes the space business before SpaceX as “stodgy and stale.” Other times, he is a bit softer on SpaceX’s competitors. Berger is not confident in Blue Origin, but at the same time, he wants the company to succeed. He notes that “whatever you may think about Bezos, his passion for space and belief in off-world settlement is genuine.”

Throughout Reentry, a pattern develops with each new SpaceX project. Musk would announce an incredibly ambitious program that has never been done before. He wanted to redesign early versions of Falcon 9 into a reusable rocket by including such innovations as landing legs, grid fins, and propellant densification. He wanted to build a satellite internet constellation known as Starlink. Ultimately, he wants to build the largest rocket in history, Starship, in order to realize SpaceX’s long-term vision of building a city on Mars.

With each Musk announcement, SpaceX would face criticism and pushback from many different entities. Legacy aerospace companies didn’t think Musk’s claims about rocket reusability were possible, and they didn’t change how they built their own launch vehicles. They didn’t think SpaceX would beat them in launching NASA astronauts to the International Space Station following the retirement of the space shuttle. Members of Congress who led states where SpaceX rivals did business were equally dismissive. Many astronauts from NASA’s glory years weren’t pleased with the new way of doing space in the 21st century. The mainstream media were quick to ridicule any explosion in a SpaceX rocket test as a sign of incompetence. To be fair to these critics, no private rocket company before SpaceX ever delivered what it promised.

Nevertheless, this pattern went on for many years. SpaceX would launch rockets and achieve impressive milestones at an increasingly faster rate, while rivals continued to ignore Musk’s claims and took little action. Eventually, Berger writes that “these competitors fail to recognize reality until it is too late, before finally scrambling to emulate Musk.” The David vs. Goliath story that characterized Liftoff turns into a David becomes Goliath tale in Reentry. Berger, very accurately, refers to today’s SpaceX as a steamroller.

The current launch industry is a ridiculously lopsided affair in favor of SpaceX. For instance, during “one stretch, from the end of 2022 into the first half of 2023, SpaceX launched more than fifty rockets between United Launch Alliance flights.” Russia’s once proud space program also didn’t account for SpaceX’s meteoric rise, claiming in 2016 that “the economic feasibility of reusable launch systems is not obvious.” Then, there’s the Europeans, who, as Berger points out, designed a conventional expendable booster with the Ariane 6 instead of a reusable system like Falcon 9.

Keeping the SpaceX steamroller operating requires lots of really dedicated individuals. Dedicated, as in working extremely long hours. After all, going to Mars won’t be easy. This arrangement has worked wonders for the company, as “SpaceX builds some of the very best products in the space industry, faster and at far lower prices than its competitors.” At the same time, working very long hours to achieve such impressive results has taken a toll on many employees. Several people interviewed in the book are no longer with the company.

Despite working much faster than the rest of the space industry, SpaceX still often misses its very aggressive deadlines. In the book, this is known as the “green lights to Malibu” philosophy. Theoretically, someone could drive from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, CA to Malibu in just thirty minutes. All one has to do is drive well over the speed limit and catch all the green lights. In other words, SpaceX timelines assume zero red lights or traffic. In any case, the SpaceX steamroller is barreling towards Mars with its foot firmly on the accelerator. Following a 2016 Musk speech on SpaceX’s Mars plan, Berger described the speech as either mad, brilliant, or both. Today, Berger leans more on the side of brilliance.

Given all the publicity surrounding SpaceX today, Reentry is almost guaranteed to become a bestseller. It’s an absolutely phenomenal read. Musk tweeted “excitement guaranteed” before the inaugural flight of Starship, and that could also be applied to reading Reentry. This book is a case study in defeating your naysayers with style.

© 2024 Casey Suire

NSS index of over 400 book reviews

On September 10, the first Polaris Dawn mission departed the Kennedy Space Center for a five-day mission in Earth orbit. The flight is completely private in nature, with billionaire philanthropist Jared Isaacman sponsoring the mission for himself and three other private astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The crew successfully returned to Earth in the early hours of September 15, splashing down safely in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida at 3:36 a.m. EDT (0736 GMT). The National Space Society congratulates Isaacman, his crew, and SpaceX for this incredible achievement, one that advances both private spaceflight and civilian access to space.

This flight checked off a number of records. At its orbital maximum, 870 miles (1400 km) above Earth, it flew higher than any Earth-orbital flight in history (only the Apollo missions, which left orbit for the Moon, flew higher). It featured the first private “stand-up” spacewalk for two of the crew and was the first time a spacecraft interior was exposed to the vacuum of space since the Skylab 1 mission of the 1970s (the Apollo capsule was exposed to a vacuum as the crew tried to repair the ailing solar panel on Skylab). The flight was Isaacman’s second to focus on philanthropy, with fundraising for St. Jude Hospital an additional focus of the mission. It was also the first test of a new extra vehicular excursion (EVA) space suit designed by SpaceX to withstand the rigors of a vacuum, and the first use of a heads-up display inside a space helmet.

As he stood in the open hatch of the Crew Dragon capsule, looking back at Earth, Isaacman said, “SpaceX, back at home we have a lot of work to do, but from here it looks like a perfect world.”  

The other crew members were Scott Poteet, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and business associate of Isaacman’s; and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. Gillis, who is 30 years old, was the youngest person to ever perform an EVA.

Perhaps most importantly, the mission demonstrated that commercial spaceflight, and flights sponsored by private individuals, can be a meaningful part of the new space age. While this was largely a test flight, a number of research projects were incorporated into the crew’s activities. Some of the more important experiments relate to their extreme altitude, which carried them through the Van Allen Belts, a region of more intense radiation than experienced in lower orbits (for example, the International Space Station orbits below this region at about 240 miles or 386 kilometers). There were, in total, 32 experiments that kept the crew busy. This Polaris Dawn flight is the first of three—Isaacman plans one more in a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and eventually, one in the company’s massive Starship spacecraft.

“The first commercial spacewalk is a signal achievement for private enterprise in space,” said Dale Skran, NSS COO and Senior Vice President. “A spacefaring civilization needs affordable, reliable, and functional spacesuits, and the Polaris Dawn mission made a big step toward this future.”

Notably, while there have been many prior spacewalks, they are still very risky, as is flying at extreme altitude. Any difficulties with the Crew Dragon’s rocket thrusters could have stranded the crew in orbit. While this is true of any spaceflight, the impact of such an emergency in a private space mission would be enormous.

NSS Executive Vice President Hoyt Davidson said, “The Polaris Dawn flight succeeded beyond expectations and has elevated the discussion about the relevance of commercial space, making this approach more plausible and complex missions more achievable. It’s time to reevaluate our approach to spaceflight before budget overruns and schedule slips dim this new horizon.”

Image: Polaris Dawn crew in space: Sarah Gillis, Jared Isaacman,  Scott Poteet, and Anna Menon. Credit: SpaceX.

Top image: Jared Isaacman EVA. Credit: SpaceX.

Image: Starliner firing maneuvering thrusters as it departs the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

The National Space Society (NSS) congratulates NASA, Boeing and the Starliner team on the safe return of its Starliner spacecraft, while supporting the decision to have the two astronauts who piloted the Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS) return on a later SpaceX Crew Dragon flight.

Starliner ‘s Crew Test Flight, the first to be flown by astronauts, launched on June 5 with an expected mission duration of eight days but quickly ran into difficulties with helium leaks in its propellant pressurization system and problems with the thrusters themselves. Extended firing appeared to result in thruster shutdowns. Starliner did, however, successfully deliver Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore to the ISS.

Boeing and NASA immediately began investigating the issues with Starliner while the crew was integrated into ISS activities, but soon realized that the spacecraft’s problems were going to take time to fully understand. Starliner’s stay was extended, and then extended again, while Boeing tested the thrusters at their test facilities. However, safety concerns remained about returning the crew on the spacecraft.

NASA ultimately decided to have Williams and Wilmore extend their stay on the ISS and to return Starliner to Earth uncrewed. NSS lauds NASA’s conservative approach to this decision and the work of the Starliner team to clarify the issues with the spacecraft. While Boeing had confidence in the Starliner’s ability to return the crew safely, the company ultimately configured the spacecraft for a robotic reentry and landing. Starliner successfully returned to Earth just after midnight, Eastern Time, on September 7.

NSS fully supports the “safety forward” approach for human spaceflight that was demonstrated by NASA on this mission. It also wholeheartedly supports the need for multiple spaceflight systems for crew delivery to and from space and the ISS. Both NASA and Boeing are to be congratulated on working through this challenging flight test. NSS hopes that Boeing will continue in their efforts to develop Starliner into a fully operational system.

All spaceflight systems require extensive testing before becoming flight certified for human crews, and they are sometimes grounded while solutions are found. It’s important to have options with more than one provider and to embrace dissimilar systems for spaceflight. The successful resolution of this Starliner test is one more indication of the success of NASA’s decision to support commercial operators through programs such as Commercial Crew.

The National Space Society applauds the successful fourth test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy launch system. The 394-foot-tall (120 meter) Starship/Super Heavy lifted off from Starbase in South Texas at 8:50 AM Eastern Time June 6, and achieved its orbital trajectory, with both stages concluding flight with soft splashdowns as planned. Other than one Super Heavy booster engine failing to ignite during liftoff—slightly reducing the 16.7 million pounds of thrust from the stage—the only apparent damage to the system was on the Starship upper stage, which suffered a partial burn-through on one of the landing flaps during the scorching reentry.

NSS CEO, Karlton Johnson, said, “The successful launch and reentry of SpaceX’s Starship is a lesson for others in resiliency and calculated risk management. SpaceX’s focus on finding ways to succeed proves what we can accomplish when we dare to try.”

Critically, the Starship stage succeeded in performing the flip and landing burn maneuver toward the end of its flight, and other than the damaged flap, was intact when it hit the water of the Indian Ocean. The Super Heavy first stage impacted in the Gulf of Mexico, again as planned. Both splashdowns were controlled until termination as intended, a giant step forward for SpaceX’s ambitions.

“SpaceX made history with its live high quality video broadcast of Starship as it plunged toward a dramatic touchdown maneuver,” said Dale Skran, NSS COO and Senior Vice President. “NSS members have never seen anything like this before, and we look forward to more excitement on the next test flight.”

This was the fourth test flight of the massive Starship system. Two of these occurred in 2023, the first in April concluding with an explosion four minutes into flight. The second test flight, performed in November, also concluding with an explosion, but achieved more milestones during the flight, including the critical staging maneuver.

Test flight three occurred in March 2024, achieving staging, and the Super Heavy stage coming to within 1600 feet (500 meters) of the Gulf of Mexico before breaking up. The upper Starship stage reached orbital velocity for almost an hour but did not survive reentry.

Today’s flight achieved a successful launch (with just one of the 33 engines failing to ignite), successful hot staging, expected splashdown of the Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico, planned reentry and flip maneuver of the Starship stage before initiating its landing burn, and splashdown of the Starship stage in the Indian Ocean as planned. Cameras onboard both stages captured video of the mission, with the Starship’s camera being compromised during reentry.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, said of the flight: “Today was a great day for humanity’s future as a spacefaring civilization! Nothing unites us more than working together towards inspiring objectives.”

Notably, SpaceX also launched a record of 14 of successful flights of its workhorse reusable Falcon 9 rocket in May.

The next planned test for Starship/Super Heavy is slated for this summer, perhaps as early as late June, which may include an attempted “capture” of the Super Heavy stage by the “Mechazilla” launch tower as it returns to the Boca Chica, Texas site.

On Wednesday, June 5, Boeing and United Launch Alliance successfully launched two astronauts, Suni Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, toward the International Space Station with a rendezvous expected within a day. This is the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, and Boeing is now on a path to join SpaceX as a provider of crew and cargo delivery to the ISS, offering a second capability for human spaceflight from the United States.

Both SpaceX and now Boeing fly under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which was initiated in 2011 following the retirement of the space shuttle. Commercial Crew had intended the providers to begin flying in 2017, but the program was delayed, requiring NASA to buy increasingly expensive seats in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, costing as much as $90 million per astronaut for a flight. SpaceX began delivering crews to the ISS aboard it’s Crew Dragon capsule in 2020, and now Boeing and ULA are proving their capability to do the same. The National Space Society (NSS) congratulates Boeing and ULA for this achievement and NASA for their foresight in the creation of Commercial Crew.

“It’s a great day for American spaceflight,” said Dale Skran, COO of the National Space Society. “Having two commercial crew systems to ferry astronauts to the ISS is vital to supporting this key national resource, providing backup capability and achieving competition in the marketplace—and this goes well beyond the ISS to supporting future Commercial LEO Destination (CLD) space stations, and more.”

Skran continued by pointing out that with two companies using different rockets and technologies, one can backstop the other. “Should one provider meet with challenges that could delay their service, the second might be able to pick up the slack. We don’t want to be dependent on foreign providers in the future,” he added.

One example of different technologies being applied is that Boeing’s Starliner is able to return to dry land—in this case the Southwest desert of the U.S.—whereas SpaceX’s capsule makes a water landing in the ocean. “Having this kind of bifurcated system provides added reliability,” Skran concluded.

NSS warmly congratulates Boeing and ULA, their many employees and subcontractors, and the many NSS members who have contributed to Starliner’s success.

Bill Includes an Extension of the Current Learning Period for Human Spaceflight Safety Regulation 

The National Space Society and Space Frontier Foundation endorsed Congressional efforts to pass H.R. 3935, a multi-year FAA policy and funding bill which includes a several-month extension of the current limit on human spaceflight occupant safety regulation.

While most of the legislation deals with the FAA’s regulation of the aviation industry and operation of the National Airspace System, it also extends the commercial human spaceflight “learning period” through the end of calendar 2024, giving Congress more time to pass a new commercial space law to extend this important restriction on premature and uninformed regulation of this new industry.

Both the House and Senate have seen progress towards that end. The House Science, Space and Technology Committee last fall approved H.R. 6131, the Commercial Space Act of 2023, which provides an eight-year extension to the learning period. Recently, the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Space and Science introduced S. 4064, the Commercial SPACE Leadership Act, which extends the learning period by five years.

The Space Frontier Foundation and National Space Society strongly urge the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to take up S. 4064 and conference it with the House to produce a long-term compromise extension of this critically important learning period.

Background information on the Learning Period

Since 2004, Congress has directed the Secretary of Transportation to require human spaceflight operators to advise their customers that spaceflight is an inherently risky activity and to fully inform them about the safety record of the vehicle type on which they would fly. If a human spaceflight system experiences a serious accident or even an incident that could have led to such an accident during a licensed flight, the Secretary may issue regulations to proscribe the specific cause or causes of that accident. However, the Department may not prospectively regulate the industry based on assumptions or guesses about vehicle safety. Congress has repeatedly extended this restriction, stating the goal should be to give industry a sufficient “learning period” to fly for revenue while collecting data on what vehicle technologies, design features, and operating approaches are more-or-less safe. If, at some point in the future, one or more industry participants chooses not to adopt industry safety standards, then not only will customers be potentially frightened away from their poor safety records, but the government can also adopt regulations to require implementation of the relevant standards. Notably, commercial flights to space only began a few years ago, and there were 24 years between Kitty Hawk and the first federal regulations on airplane safety. Clearly it is premature to enact and impose such regulations during this period of rapid innovation.

Jordan Noone, General Partner of Embedded Ventures and founding CTO of rocket company Relativity Space, will join the roster of preeminent speakers at the National Space Society’s 2024 International Space Development Conference® (ISDC®), which will be presented at the LAX Sheraton Gateway Hotel from May 23-26 in Los Angeles, CA.

Noone is the Co-Founder and a General Partner at Embedded Ventures, a next generation venture capital firm investing in early-stage deep tech startups. The firm invests in pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds for startups focused on space operations, digital engineering, and advanced manufacturing. In addition to his role at Embedded, Jordan is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of portfolio company Zoo, the first such company to develop advanced tools for hardware design. Noone previously co-founded Relativity Space, which was most recently valued at $4.2 billion. As Relativity’s CTO for five years, he focused on technical direction and engineering design for the advanced 3D-printed rocket company. As a leader of the University of Southern California’s Rocket Propulsion Lab, where he worked with NSS VP of Space Development Dr. Greg Autry, Noone became the first student and youngest individual to receive Federal Aviation Administration clearance to fly a rocket into space.

“We’re proud to have Jordan speaking at the ISDC,” said Dale Skran, COO of NSS. “The development of space will not go forward without entrepreneurial companies like Relativity Space and finance partners like Embedded Ventures paving the way ahead.”

Max Haot, the CEO of Vast Space, will join the roster of preeminent speakers at the National Space Society’s 2024 International Space Development Conference^® (ISDC^®). Haot founded a company called Launcher in 2017 to develop space tugs and orbital payload platforms, which was acquired by Vast in 2023.

Vast Space, located in Long Beach, California, was founded in 2021 by entrepreneur Jed McCaleb to develop artificial gravity stations in low-Earth orbit. In 2023 Vast received a Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities-2 (CCSC-2) agreement from NASA to help develop artificial gravity stations with technical expertise, assessments, data, and more. The company launched its first mission, SN3, in June of 2023 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, and although SN3 was only partially successful, it paved the way for their next launch in late 2024 or early 2025. Vast is also developing the E-2 staged combustion liquid rocket engine for use on its Orbiter space tug and payload platform.

In all, Haot has founded, scaled, and successfully sold four companies including Launcher, Mevo (which was acquired by Logitech), and Livestream (which was acquired by IAC/Vimeo).

“We’re proud to have Mr. Haot speaking at the ISDC,” said Dale Skran, NSS COO. “The development of space will not go forward without entrepreneurial companies like Vast, and people like Mr. Haot, paving the way ahead. We are delighted to see VAST’s daring and ambitious work to make the dream of artificial gravity in space a reality.”

The ISDC will be held on May 23-26, 2024, in Los Angeles, California at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel at LAX. Presentations will include talks on space exploration and development, cislunar infrastructure, the influence of science fiction, biosciences, space policy, space settlement, space technology, space law, in situ resource utilization, space-related economics, space agriculture and food production, life support, space solar power, health and diet, newspace and commercialization, international collaboration, planetary defense, planetary protection, and more. Please see the ISDC 2024 website for more details.

“The ISDC is the only major space conference that is intended for everyone, from space professionals to students to the lay public. It is the largest and longest running space conference anywhere,” said Aggie Kobrin, the NSS Event Manager. “We’re thrilled to have seasoned space entrepreneurs like Mr. Haot speaking to attendees of the ISDC, where audiences range from seasoned NASA professionals to hundreds of young people, all of whom are deeply interested in space.”

Other notables at this year’s ISDC include Star Trek star William Shatner, former NASA astronauts Susan Kilrain and Jose Hernandez, Dr. Alan Stern of NASA’s New Horizons mission, Dr. Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute and NASA Ames, Chief Engineer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Rob Manning, Jordan Noone of Embedded Ventures, Janet’s Planet host and NSS Governor Janet Ivey, Ad Astra magazine Editor-in-Chief Rod Pyle, and Melissa Navia, star of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.