In addition to space stations, Vast says it will now build high-power satellites

Source: Ars Technica

Overview

With this new product line, Vast is entering an increasingly crowded market. Historically, in the United States, a handful of large companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Maxar, and Sierra Space have manufactured medium and large satellites. Typically these were costly, often bespoke designs that cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars.

A few recent trends have changed the landscape:

• The U.S. government’s Space Development Agency has signaled a preference for proliferated constellations—many satellites spread out present less of a concentrated target than a few larger, more expensive satellites.
• The Falcon 9 rocket’s increased cadence, along with rideshare missions, has made it easier and sometimes cheaper to launch smaller and medium‑size satellites into orbit.

This environment has attracted an influx of venture‑capital‑backed companies seeking to build less expensive, more modular satellites for a variety of purposes. Prominent, relatively new entrants include:

• K2 Space
• Rocket Lab
• True Anomaly
• Blue Canyon
• Millennium Space Systems

Vast already has… vast facilities

Haot said most of these companies are still emerging, with products that are not yet mature. In other words, he believes that if Vast Space can execute, it could become a market leader, especially with applications that are power‑hungry. Vast has already invested $1 billion in facilities for spacecraft manufacturing, including clean rooms that can be used for space stations as well as satellites.

The number of satellites in space has exploded in recent years, largely due to the rapid expansion of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. For decades the total number of satellites orbiting Earth hovered around 4,000, but in the last five years that number has grown to about 14,000.

This is just the beginning. By some estimates, in another decade there will be approximately 500,000 satellites in orbit for communications, Earth observation, orbital data centers, and other applications.

Haot expects that about 90 percent of these will be built by SpaceX, Amazon, Blue Origin, or other major players. Even 10 percent of that total—roughly 50,000 satellites—would represent a sizable market for commercial satellite bus manufacturers like Vast and its competitors.