54: Private Space Enterprise, Artemis Debate, and the Human Body in Space. Bob Zimmerman (Behind the Black) reviews the private space sector, highlighting VAST, which is developing the small manned demo space station Haven One using its own investment capital

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Private Space Enterprise, Artemis Debate, and the Human Body in Space. Bob Zimmerman (Behind the Black) reviews the private space sector, highlighting VAST, which is developing the small manned demo space station Haven One using its own investment capital, unlike other NASA-funded consortiums. VAST's larger planned station, Haven 2, is designed to rotate, creating artificial gravity. This capability is crucial for mitigating the damage extended weightlessness causes the human body, such as cardiovascular weakening, bone density loss, and vision problems (the eye flattens). Zimmerman notes the ongoing debate over NASA's Artemis program, where former administrators clash over SpaceX's ability to build the lunar lander on time, often driven by lobbying interests. He also reports that China recently set a new national record for successful launches in a single year (67 completed).
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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Batchler. Behind the Black with Bob Zimmerman. It is Thanksgiving subscription and donations time for Behind the Black. Bob will take us into low Earth orbit with private enterprise, observe the frustrations of big space in the same ambition,
0:23.6	and yet much more expensively and much fewer, less agilely. And then the Earth is part of an
0:31.2	Earth-moon system, and that is the ambition coming up for several private enterprises,
0:35.7	and of course, Mr. Musk. So your generosity is most appreciated.
0:40.5	We begin immediately with low Earth orbit and a space station built by a company, I believe,
0:46.8	calling itself vast. Bob, what is vast ambition? What's their mission? Good evening to you.
0:52.7	Good evening, John. Well, it really comes down to
0:55.4	NASA initially and ISS. ISS is going away. It's definitely going to retire by 2030. It's got
1:01.8	technical issues that make it risky for even to last that long. And so NASA has been trying to
1:09.1	encourage private companies to develop their own private
1:12.6	space stations. In other words, NASA doesn't want to build it anymore. It wants to become the
1:17.0	customer buying it from others. And so NASA is going to be issuing contracts. And it already
1:21.3	has issued some contracts, development contracts, for these private companies to build space stations.
1:28.9	Vast is different than the other three companies and consortiums. It has so far taken no NASA
1:35.9	money. Instead, it is using its own money to launch a manned single module small demo space station called Haven One that it'll launch next,
1:49.4	this coming spring.
1:51.5	And it wants to demonstrate its capabilities with real hardware in orbit with real manned
1:57.4	missions to encourage Nacity, give it the bigger contracts that are to follow.
2:02.6	And it's the only one of these four consortiums that's doing it this way.
2:07.1	Most of the others are taking the development money.
2:09.4	They're doing some development and some construction, but they're mainly trying to showcase
2:14.1	themselves with show mockups instead.
	...

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