Vast, a leader in space habitation technology, is happy to announce that Max Haot, who serves as president at the moment, has been named to succeed Jed McCaleb as chief executive officer. The positions of Founder, Board Chair, and Tech Fellow will be taken over by McCaleb. Alex Hudson will join the organization as its first Chief Technology Officer, it was also revealed.
“My excitement and financial commitment to Vast continues to grow. With our recent operational acceleration and growth, the time has come for me to take a more strategic role as Founder, Board Chair & Tech Fellow and to empower our leadership to lead the day-to-day operation at Vast. I’m excited to appoint Max Haot as our new CEO to succeed me in this role and Alex Hudson as our first CTO,” said McCaleb.
“Building our leadership team with a focus on proven crewed space flight experience and safety is a key priority at Vast. To this effect, I’m excited to welcome and partner with Alex in the newly created role of Chief Technology Officer at Vast,” said Haot, Vast’s CEO.
Alex has a wide range of experience in a variety of hard-tech areas, such as quantum computing, imaging systems, spacecraft, and scientific instruments. In the United Kingdom, Alex received his undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Bristol and his doctorate in MRI Physics from Sir Peter Mansfield's group at the University of Nottingham.
Alex most recently served as the team leader for SpaceX's Dragon and Avionics departments. The pinnacle of Alex's professional career was piloting astronauts on the brand-new Crew Dragon spaceship during Demo-2, which gave SpaceX the opportunity to restart routine astronaut transport on American equipment, launched from the USA. The sub-orbital Starship SN8 ("belly flop" landing maneuver"), SN15 ("first Starship landing"), and most recently "Starship Orbital test flight 1" ("first flight of the 33-engine super-heavy rocket and ship") were notable missions of his Avionics team.
“I look forward to this next exciting challenge – developing an artificial gravity space station with the team at Vast to enable long-term life in space,” said Hudson, CTO at Vast.