Vast Space moves into satellite manufacturing

Vast Space is expanding beyond private space stations into satellite manufacturing, announcing plans to sell high-powered satellite buses after flying a small demonstration spacecraft earlier this year, according to Ars Technica. The company says its first offering is a 15 kW-class bus aimed at customers in telecommunications, observation, and data services, with optional support for orbital data-center inferencing.

The move puts Vast into a market that has been reshaped by two forces pulling in opposite directions: traditional aerospace primes built around bespoke, high-margin spacecraft, and newer entrants selling modular platforms sized for proliferated constellations. Ars Technica notes that US satellite manufacturing has long been dominated by firms such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Maxar, and Sierra Space, where medium and large satellites were often custom designs costing tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. At the same time, the Space Development Agency’s preference for large constellations and the increased cadence of Falcon 9 launches and rideshare missions have made it easier to field more satellites, more often, and with less up-front commitment.

Vast is trying to turn its space-station program into a parts catalogue. The company says its satellite bus draws heavily on technology developed for Haven-1, including in-house work on electric propulsion and a deployable solar array. That reuse matters because space-station ambitions are capital intensive and schedule sensitive: hardware built for a single flagship launch can sit idle if regulators, launch providers, or customers slip. Selling satellite buses creates a second revenue path that can keep factories busy, spread fixed costs, and force the company to build repeatable manufacturing processes rather than one-off integration work.

The pitch is also a bet that “power-hungry” missions will become a distinct niche. Ars Technica reports Vast plans to offer an NVIDIA module for customers who want orbital inferencing, framing satellites not just as sensors and relays but as compute nodes. If that market develops, the scarce resource is less the bus itself than the ability to supply stable power, thermal management, and reliable operations across multiple orbits—from low-Earth orbit to lunar orbit, which Vast says its buses can support.

Vast says it has already signed a customer for four satellites with an option for up to 200 more, and it is targeting launches of at least 10 Vast satellites in the fourth quarter of 2027. It also says it has invested $1 billion in spacecraft manufacturing facilities, including clean rooms that can be used for both stations and satellites.

The company’s demonstration spacecraft de-orbited successfully after completing dozens of test objectives. Next year’s Haven-1 launch is still described as the first private space station—while the same production lines are now being marketed to anyone who needs a bus.