Jed McCaleb, the crypto billionaire known for co-founding Ripple Labs and the now-defunct Mt. Gox exchange, is investing up to $1 billion of his personal wealth to build a private space station that could eventually replace the International Space Station (ISS), which NASA plans to retire by 2030.
McCaleb’s 2021-founded aerospace venture, Vast, is looking to become NASA’s primary commercial partner for maintaining a human presence in low Earth orbit after the ISS era ends. His plan centres on Haven-1, a compact space station currently in development and testing in Mojave, California.
In a March interview with Bloomberg, McCaleb said that his upcoming station’s goal goes far beyond space tourism or commercial contracts. “I think we’d be in a much better situation if there were billions of people living out beyond Earth,” he said. “People need a frontier. Otherwise, things start to feel very zero-sum.”
Ripple founder, McCaleb pushes the private sector to replace the ISS
Vast is among several private companies vying to take over operations currently managed by the ISS. NASA’s relationships with commercial entities, including billionaire Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, show they are imperative to the government entity’s future missions, and McCaleb’s startup wants a piece of the cake into the transition.
🇺🇸 CRYPTO BILLIONAIRE WANTS TO REPLACE THE ISS WITH HIS OWN SPACE STATION
Jed McCaleb, known for founding Ripple and Stellar, is now aiming higher—literally.
His startup, Vast, is building Haven-1, a private space station designed to replace the International Space Station… https://t.co/nJbr0Y34N2 pic.twitter.com/x4N0SEEcYW
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 4, 2025
The first piece of Vast’s strategy is Haven-1, a small-scale outpost designed to accommodate four people. The company has secured a launch slot aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, targeting May 2026, delayed from its earlier goal of August 2025.
Vast is reportedly using technology developed by SpaceX, including rockets and crew transfer systems. The space station’s launch will be followed by a two-week mission, during which a SpaceX Dragon capsule will ferry four crew members to the station and return them safely to Earth.
According to Vast’s president, Max Haot, the demonstration is intended to prove the startup’s readiness to NASA before other competitors.
The company’s second-generation space station, Haven-2, is also currently in development and expected to enter assembly by 2028. Haot said the station’s core module will be ready by 2030, allowing NASA a two-year window to test it while the ISS remains operational.
Vast details Haven-2 as an instalment with several upgrades over its predecessor, including two docking ports and double the internal pressurized volume of Haven-1.
Moreover, the complete Haven-2 station is expected to include eight modules. The core, launched via SpaceX’s Starship rocket, will include a 7-meter diameter design, a robotic arm, an airlock for spacewalks, and additional docking capabilities.
The initial four modules will be adapted to fit this configuration, and four more will be launched in 2031 and 2032. Once complete, the station will boast a habitable volume of 550 cubic meters, more than the ISS’s 388 cubic meters, and could house up to 12 occupants.
McCaleb insists that he will try to raise the funds to build the new station alone, and is not seeking external investment as of this moment in time. “There’s not that many folks that are willing to dedicate the amount of resources and time and risk tolerance that I am,” he said.
Trouble in orbit necessitates alternatives
NASA’s transition away from the ISS could be a more pertinent issue after the incident nine months ago. In June 2024, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft encountered a near-disastrous malfunction during its approach to the station. Four of its thrusters failed mid-maneuver, leaving astronauts unable to advance and teetering on the brink of mission abort.
As reported by tech news outlet Ars Technica, manual control of the spaceship lagged after several thrusters failed. Mission Control broke standard flight rules and issued remote reboots to recover partial function, narrowly allowing the spacecraft to dock.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were on board during the mission, eventually returned home on March 18, not aboard the Starliner but via a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
In their first public address since returning, Wilmore and Williams held a press conference on Monday to discuss the incident, admitting they were partially to blame for the mission failure.
“I’ll start and point the finger, and I’ll blame me,” Wilmore said. “I could have asked some questions, and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide.”
Still, the astronauts said they are willing to fly on Starliner again, viewing the experience as part of the ups and downs of space travel.
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