Jed McCaleb made billions of dollars on cryptocurrency. Now he’s prepared to lose a big chunk of that on a cosmic gamble. One of the original people behind the failed Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange as well as the cryptocurrency XRP, he’s the sole financial backer of an ambitious effort to build the world’s first commercial space station and send it into orbit.
If he succeeds, his startup, Vast Space, may be well-positioned to win a lucrative contract from NASA next year—potentially worth billions of dollars—to replace the International Space Station. If it’s a bust, McCaleb could lose half of his fortune.
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00:00 Introduction
00:45 Vast’s Mission
01:12 The ISS’s Decomission
01:45 Vast’s Founder
05:00 Vast’s Race to Catch Up
05:47 That Machine Shop / Building a Space Station
09:04 The Speed of Private Industry
09:54 The NASA Contract
10:41 Vast’s SpaceX Contracts
12:04 Haven – 1 Qualification Primary Structure
12:36 An Uncertain Future
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