Vast

California-based space station startup Vast has eliminated 46 positions, or roughly 4% of its workforce, even as it continues hiring for hundreds of roles and pushes towards the launch of its first commercial space station. The job cuts were carried out during Vast’s mid-year review cycle. The company described the departures as performance-related rather than part of a broader reduction in headcount and said it intends to refill the affected positions. “As part of our mid-year review cycle, Vast parted ways with employees who were not meeting expectations.

We are backfilling these positions and are continuing to grow and execute,” a company spokesperson said. Vast currently has 277 open roles, creating an unusual contrast between the 46 employees who have been let go and a recruitment drive that remains active. The reductions come at a particularly important point for the privately held space company. Vast raised $500 million only months earlier, with the funding intended to accelerate the development and production of its Haven space stations. While Vast has linked the departures to employee performance, two people affected by the cuts offered a different account.

The former employees said they had not previously been told that their work was falling short of expectations. According to their account, concerns over performance or output had not been raised during recent one-on-one conversations with managers or in performance reviews. That disagreement leaves two distinct versions of the circumstances surrounding the layoffs. Vast maintains that the decisions were part of its normal review process, while the affected employees said they had received no warning that their jobs were at risk. The company, meanwhile, is continuing to recruit and says the vacated roles will be backfilled.

The timing of the cuts stands out because Vast is simultaneously trying to expand its operations and hit a series of ambitious technical milestones. The company is preparing Haven-1, its first planned space station, for launch in 2027 aboard a SpaceX rocket. Beyond that initial station, Vast wants to develop Haven-2, a larger modular platform designed to accommodate as many as 12 people. Haven-2 is intended to become part of the commercial orbital infrastructure that could follow the International Space Station. The ISS is expected to be deorbited in 2030, leaving private companies with a limited window to demonstrate that their proposed stations can support astronauts, research programmes and commercial activity in low Earth orbit.

That approaching transition has turned the post-ISS market into one of the most closely watched opportunities in commercial spaceflight. Founded by Jed McCaleb in 2021, Vast has set out plans that extend well beyond operating a conventional orbital laboratory. Its longer-term ambition includes developing stations capable of rotating in orbit to create artificial gravity. If ultimately realised, that approach would represent a significant departure from the microgravity environment associated with existing human spaceflight platforms. The company has also expanded into satellite manufacturing and has reached an agreement with the European Space Agency connected to missions involving European astronauts travelling to the International Space Station.

Those projects make the company’s hiring, spending and execution decisions particularly significant. Vast is not building towards a single launch. It is attempting to establish a broader space infrastructure business while preparing technology that has yet to operate as a commercial station in orbit. Vast is entering this phase at a time when the framework for replacing the ISS is still evolving.