Haot Will Speak About the Opportunities Presented by Artificial Gravity Platforms in Earth Orbit
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.
