Who is Vast the company that wants to send billionaires into space ?

© SpaceX

Since the exploits of billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos in the summer of 2020, space tourism has truly been born. In just a few years, many projects and just as many companies have emerged to allow ordinary people to go into space. Usually for a very large sum of money.

In the list of these companies wanting to realize one of the last billionaire dreams that is still unattainable, we can add for a few days “Vast Space”. The young company based in the United States has just formalized this December 19 the signing of a partnership with SpaceX.

Two flights to the ISS

The latter provides for two commercial and tourist flights to the ISS carried out by SpaceX for the benefit of Vast Space. These are two short-term missions that should allow Vast Space to have its first customers, while waiting for NASA's agreement to send tourists into space without necessarily going through the ISS (the International Space Station).

According to Max Haot, CEO of Vast, the agreement signed in mid-December with SpaceX is a further step in the company's development. In particular, it should strengthen our collaboration with NASA.

For her part, Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX, says she is “delighted” to work with Vast on new space missions. For the time being, SpaceX has already conducted space tourism missions with the private company Axiom (which notably designed NASA's next spacesuits).

Space tourism, the new fashion

The signing of this new contract confirms that space tourism is on the rise. While this practice is criticized by many people, starting with environmentalists who see it as one more way to kill the planet. Space tourism seems to be a growing market with ever-increasing missions.

Virgin Galactic, a pioneer in this market, has nevertheless demonstrated that it is very difficult to make a stable economic model survive with space tourism. Although the price of a ticket for a few minutes in space is already very high, most of these companies work at a loss, hoping to reach profitability with a larger list of customers.

A question of schedule for NASA

For the moment, there are two types of tourist flights in space. The first, but also the cheapest, consists of making a “hop” above the Karman line. This flight only lasts a few minutes, you feel the sensation of weightlessness when coming back down.

The other solution, much more expensive, is to fly in a PAM. These manned missions allow you to spend a few days in orbit around the Earth, particularly in the ISS. This is the type of flight that Vast Space wants to offer with the help of SpaceX.

But going to the ISS is not done like that, you need NASA's agreement. A precious sesame that is difficult to retrieve. NASA has already announced that manned tourist missions to the ISS would be limited. Today, there is talk of one or two PAMs per year.

Will the arrival of Jared Isaacman, a great friend of Elon Musk at the head of NASA, change anything in this state of affairs?? It is likely.

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