{"id":125513,"date":"2025-03-21T02:17:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T02:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=125513"},"modified":"2025-03-21T02:17:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T02:17:50","slug":"inside-eccentric-ripple-founders-multibillion-dollar-space-station-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=125513","title":{"rendered":"Inside \u2018eccentric\u2019 Ripple founder\u2019s multibillion-dollar space station plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsThe serial entrepreneur who founded the Mt. Gox crypto exchange and co-founded Ripple has shared new details about his ambitious space station company Vast, which he hopes will help expand the human race into a multi-planetary species.
\nIn a March 20 interview with Bloomberg, Jed McCaleb confirmed that Vast is on track to launch Haven-1 \u2014 a commercial space station still under construction \u2014 into orbit by May 2026.
\nIf McCaleb\u2019s startup succeeds, it will be better positioned to win a lucrative contract from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration to replace the International Space Station. Contracts are expected to be handed out in mid-2026.
\nIf Vast fails or loses the NASA contract to a competitor, McCaleb could see $1 billion wiped from his net worth and the commercial future of his space station firm would be in doubt, according to the report.\u00a0
\n\u201cThere are not that many folks who are willing to dedicate the amount of resources and time and risk tolerance that I am,\u201d McCaleb told Bloomberg.
\nVast\u2019s founder, board chair and tech fellow Jed McCaleb. Source: VastMcCaleb is known to be a \u201cdeliberate risk-taker\u201d with hyperrational tendencies, according to long-time friend and former business partner Sam Yagan, who added:
\n\u201cHe\u2019s maybe slightly eccentric in his willingness to take what you and I would see as a lot of risks.\u201d
\nMcCaleb\u2019s aspiration to put humans on other planets draws similarities to multibillionaire and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s super important that people take this leap from where we are today to this potential world where there\u2019s a lot of people living off the Earth,\u201d said McCaleb, who founded Vast in 2021.
\nVast is building its spacecraft with components developed by SpaceX, such as a docking adapter to connect SpaceX\u2019s Dragon capsule to Vast\u2019s station and an in-space internet system that will provide WiFi on the station via Starlink.
\nKey specifications Vast\u2019s Haven-1 model. Source: VastMcCaleb\u2019s firm has also booked SpaceX flights to send its hardware into orbit and deliver crew to its station, and SpaceX has agreed to carry astronauts for Vast as long as NASA gives its go-ahead.
\nVast\u2019s close ties to SpaceX stem partly from it hiring key personnel who previously worked there, including Max Haot, who now serves as Vast\u2019s CEO and president.
\nVast is competing with the likes of Axiom Space, Voyager Space Holdings, Lockheed Martin and the Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin to win the next major NASA contract.
\nMcCaleb also wants to create \u2018artificial gravity\u2019
\nPart of Vast\u2019s long-term plans is to create artificial gravity replicating Earth-like conditions by accelerating or rotating the spacecraft, as many ISS workers who have spent lengthy periods in space have reported organ damage.
\nThe ISS also uses a technology that recycles wastewater into potable water and carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen. Haven-1 won\u2019t feature this due to its short-term crew visits, but Vast plans to incorporate it into its future model, Haven-2, by 2028, which will be designed for longer-term stays.
\nBoth McCaleb and Haot say they\u2019re willing to board flights themselves.
\nRelated: SETI, NASA scientists think AI could teach aliens about Earth
\nMcCaleb has followed an unconventional pathway into the space industry.
\nAfter McCaleb\u2019s first success with the internet file-sharing service eDonkey in the 2000s, his next notable achievement was founding Mt. Gox in 2010.
\nHis time at Mt. Gox was short-lived, with McCaleb selling a majority stake in 2011. Mt. Gox went on to become the world\u2019s largest Bitcoin (BTC) exchange until 2014 when a $400 million hack sent the company into bankruptcy.
\nSeveral months later, McCaleb began his next venture \u2014 creating the XRP (XRP) crypto token on the Ripple protocol in 2012.
\nMcCaleb owned 9% of the XRP tokens from the onset but sold the majority of them after 2013 when he left Ripple following disagreements with the company\u2019s other founders.
\nHe has netted billions of dollars from those XRP sales and Ripple equity between 2014 and 2022.
\nMcCaleb also founded the Stellar network in 2014 \u2014 a fork of the Ripple protocol \u2014 along with the Stellar (XLM) crypto token, which now boasts an $8.7 billion market cap, CoinGecko data shows.
\nMagazine: Big Questions: Did the NSA create Bitcoin?Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsThe serial entrepreneur who founded the Mt. Gox crypto exchange and co-founded Ripple has shared new details about his ambitious space station company Vast, which he hopes will… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125513"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}