SpaceX alumni would explain why Vast seems to be developing its space station so rapidly. The company got a late start, yet it may be the first in space. They also seem willing to put up a prototype module that will become obsolete within a couple of years. SpaceX did something similar with Starlink. Early satellites that were obsolete on launch allowed them to test reality before sending up its operational version of Starlink, and Vast may be planning a similar tactic for Haven-2.

Agree about Vast. Their intent seems to be that enunciated by Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest – “get there fustest with the mostest.” If Vast can get Haven-1 up in late 2025 or early 2026 and follow up with the initial Haven-2 4-module configuration by 2028, they will have their porchlight lit well before ISS goes into the drink and well in advance of any of their notional competitors.

Also agree about the nature of the Vast organization anent Axiom. Vast has 600 people and are making most of their own stuff – very SpaceX-ish vertical integration. But Vast has a fair number of SpaceX alums on its roster and seems intent on sliding neatly into the Greater SpaceX Space Ecosystem. All the launch services for their station modules will be provided by SpaceX. Thrusters for the Havens Vast is buying from Tom Mueller’s outfit Impulse Space. Those big round windows are probably from an outside supplier too, but I don’t know that for a fact.

Axiom, meanwhile, has had 800 on its payroll and has contracted out the manufacture of most of its hardware. Makes one wonder what all those people do there all day. But Axiom co-founder Mike Suffredini is now out.

There is more than a faint whiff of Rocketplane-Kistler wafting from Axiom I must confess. A management cadre of old NASA hands led by the late George Mueller (no relation to Tom) took over Rp-K from its founders and then proceeded to make a controlled flight into terrain as the NTSB puts it. A key error was abandoning all the work of the original Kistler team and contracting a much more conventional design out to legacy aerospace.

I’d very much like to see Axiom’s station become a thing – and also their lunar EVA suits – but I share your misgivings as to how likely that now is. I hope Axiom manages to Pull Up!, Pull Up!, Pull Up! in time to avoid a crash.

Slick website.

Were they movable? The pictures I have seen implied they were hinged at one edge, the edge toward the booster. This might mean they were designed to induce more or less drag as a steering mechanism. Can you elaborate?

N-1 had them at the base.

Some bombs have them.