Rocket startup Launcher acquired by space station developer Vast

Launcher Inc., a space-launch startup that tested its 3D-printed rocket engines at Calverton, has been acquired by California space station developer Vast, the companies announced.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Launcher, founded in 2017, was based at the Brooklyn Navy Yard before moving to Hawthorne, California, in 2021. While in Brooklyn, the company tested its rocket engines in 10-by-20-foot container units at the Enterprise Park at Calverton, known as EPCAL.

Vast plans to build a space station with artificial gravity that will be larger than the International Space Station, where space travelers now float in a weightless environment.

The more than 120 employees of the combined company will be based at Vast's 115,000-square-foot headquarters in Long Beach, California.

Max Haot, founder and chief executive of Launcher, becomes president of Vast, while Jed McCaleb, who founded Vast, remains the company's CEO.

Haot sold his Brooklyn-based Livestream video service to Manhattan-based IAC in 2017. McCaleb, who founded several cryptocurrency firms, has a net worth of $2.4 billion, according to Forbes.

Launcher has been developing rockets and transfer vehicles to create an economical service for putting small satellites into orbit.

 Use of 3D printing to create a liquid-fuel rocket-engine combustion chamber  is designed to reduce cost and assist in cooling, according to the company.

In January, a Launcher orbital transfer vehicle carrying several satellites was launched into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, but it failed to deploy. It stopped operating when solar panels did not generate power due to an issue with the GPS antenna system, according to a report by Via Satellite, a trade magazine

An orbital transfer vehicle, also known as a space tug, is designed to separate from a rocket and guide its satellites into their proper orbit. Customers' satellites aboard the Launcher orbital transfer vehicle also failed to deploy.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.