Lights that turn on when you walk into a room and turn off when you leave are one of the most desirable smart home features. But you need to buy additional hardware like motion sensors to make this “magic” happen. A new ambient sensing technology called Sensify could make this easier by turning your light bulbs into motion sensors. And it might be landing on a Philips Hue bridge near you very soon.
Technology
Here’s the tech that could turn millions of Zigbee light bulbs into motion sensors with a single update
“There are tens of millions of devices with the base firmware already out there; we’re just working on the final touches to light up the full experience.”
Sensify is a wireless network sensing (WNS) technology developed by Ivani that can turn mains-powered Zigbee devices into motion sensors for controlling your lights with just a firmware update — no additional hardware needed. The best part is that it can work on devices already in most homes. “There are tens of millions of devices with the base firmware already out there; we’re just working on the final touches to light up the full experience,” Ivani cofounder Justin McKinney tells The Verge.
An obvious use case for this is a Zigbee-based smart lighting system such as Philips Hue. There’s been speculation that Hue is working on a Zigbee sensing technology since its sister company Wiz debuted a similar tech called SpaceSense in 2022, which uses WNS over Wi-Fi. The well-informed hueblog.com reports that Zigbee wireless network sensing is the technology Hue will most likely use. The Verge reached out to Signify, which owns Hue, but hasn’t yet received a response.
McKinney wouldn’t say which companies are using Ivani’s Sensify, which has been in development since 2016, but he did share that the company is working “with some large household names poised to deploy the technology very soon.” He also said it’s the only company offering this capability over Zigbee networks.
Ivani is a member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which runs the Zigbee protocol, but Sensify is a proprietary solution that leverages the Zigbee network. Despite reports indicating this sensing tech is coming to all Zigbee devices, the CSA confirmed to The Verge that this is not a new feature within Zigbee itself.
WNS works by detecting disturbances in radio frequencies and can also be applied to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Thread technologies. McKinney says Sensify requires three or more devices positioned around a detection area to detect motion and occupancy in the space. The tech also allows for precise detection zones based on where the devices are situated. “The devices send messages to each other, look at underlying network diagnostic information, and process it to provide occupancy sensing decisions,” says McKinney.
Performance-wise, McKinney says Sensify is “equivalent or superior” to passive infrared sensing (PIR) tech, which is traditionally used for motion sensing. It also doesn’t need line of sight, as PIR does. However, it’s not as precise as technologies like mmWave sensing, which can determine if someone is in a room through as slight a movement as breathing. “The lights will still likely turn off if you’re still, even if you’re in the space,” he says.
The good news is that Sensify can run on Zigbee networks with a range of chipsets working together, meaning it can be deployed as a software update to existing systems. McKinney also confirmed Sensify runs locally on your Zigbee network, there’s no Sensify cloud, and any sensing data is only accessible to the manufacturer deploying the technology.
This video, published by the CSA, illustrates how Ivani’s wireless network sensing works over a Zigbee network.
Motion sensing in the smart home has several use cases, from lighting control and security to energy management and elder care. Two big advantages of WNS here are cost and scale. There’s no need to buy additional hardware to get the capability, and many homes already have devices that can use it.
Ivani is currently the only company with a Zigbee solution, but there are WNS solutions out there that use Wi-Fi. Origin Wireless and its partner company, Nami, were the first to develop Wi-Fi sensing, and they are leading Matter’s efforts around bringing ambient RF sensing technologies to the smart home standard.
“It really is the promise of what home automation was supposed to be”
Origin’s technology powered Linksys Aware, a feature the router company launched in 2019 that turned its routers into motion sensors, and last year, Threshold launched a smart plug using Origin’s Wi-Fi sensing to allow caregivers to monitor a loved one’s activity remotely.
In 2021, I tested Hex Home, a proof-of-concept security system from Origin that used Wi-Fi sensing instead of motion sensors. But false positives made it virtually unusable. I also tried Wiz’s Wi-Fi-based SpaceSense when it first launched. It was more reliable but still fairly inconsistent. However, according to McKinney, advances in machine learning and AI have brought significant improvements to WNS technology.
He says Ivani’s Sensify tech is ready for deployment over Zigbee, and they’re just waiting for their partners to fine-tune how best to “introduce the feature within their product lines.” He expects they will update existing products in the next few months. “We have the pleasure of experiencing our partner’s products and their beta tests in our homes, and it really is the promise of what home automation was supposed to be.”
There have been a lot of promises around home automation over the years, with very few being fulfilled. But the idea of, say, every Philips Hue light bulb in your home turning into a motion sensor overnight, making it simple to automate control of your lights without sticking white plastic sensors everywhere, is a fairly exciting one.
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Samsung is already the king of folding phones – and at the first Samsung Galaxy Unpacked of 2025, the tech giant teased its potential next frontier.
During the launch, which saw the reveal of the Samsung Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Plus, Samsung showed off a brief roadmap of its future products – complete with a tri-folding foldable phone.
There were no timings or dates included, and no suggestion that such a device will be with us this year, but I’d suggest such a phone is coming sooner than later, as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 seems to have reached a plateau for folding phones at Samsung.
For more from the showcase right now, check our our Samsung Galaxy Unpacked live blog.
A new frontier for foldables
While even the best foldable phones aren’t exactly perfect, with chunky frames and visible creases. But even with these caveats, they are rather good productivity devices, so having another display could turn them into serious devices that can double up as Android tablets.
Samsung’s display arm has already shown off a couple of prototype tri-fold concept phones at CES 2025, so such a folding phone was definitely being considered by the South Korean company. But seeing such a phone on a roadmap is a very strong indicator that a tri-folding phone will become a legitimate consumer product.
It’s over to fellow Managing Editor and TV/display specialist Matthew Bolton for his thoughts on the tri-fold concepts he got to see at CES: “I saw two versions of a tri-fold screen prototype device. One that folds in a Z-shape, just like what Samsung hinted at in its announcement, and one where left and right screens folded on top of the center screen.
“I wasn’t allowed to fold these phones (no one was, it’s not a reflection on my brutishness), but it showcased the potential designs of these phones, and just how much extra space this layout can give you – it really feels like these reach the promise of ‘a tablet that turns into a phone’, in the sense that when folded out, they’re around the 10-inch size of a full tablet, instead of the mini-tablet size of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. However, don’t expect much change in the key flaw of folding screens: you’re going to be looking at two creases instead of one.”
We’ve already gone hands on with other tri-folds, most notably the Huawei Mate XT that impressed Phones Editor Axel Metz. So there’s no doubt in my mind that the next step for foldable phones will be tri-folds, at least from the Android camp of the smartphone arena.
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This is important because, while we MagSafe lovers have made do with MagSafe Android phone cases these past few years, there’s always been a caveat that these cases may not work with all MagSafe products. With Qi2 Ready cases, you can rest easy knowing they’ll work with Qi2 chargers.
It’s worth noting that OnePlus’ latest flagship phone, the OnePlus 13, is not a Qi2 Ready phone, however, OnePlus sells a magnetic case to enable Qi2-like charging. This is the old approach of adding magnetic charging to phones with basic Qi support, and it will not turn your phone into a Qi2 device. While it may feel similar, you may not enjoy faster charging speeds, it will not be as energy efficient, and it’s not guaranteed to work with all Qi2 accessories. Golden says Qi2 Ready phones have “special features built into them” to enable proper Qi2 functionality when paired with a Qi2 Ready case.
Alas, as soon as you take these Qi2 Ready cases off the phone, the magnetic functionality disappears. This may not be a problem for most people. It’s hard to find recent statistics, but a 2023 YouGov survey found that roughly 68 percent of Americans use a phone case, and a 2017 study put that number at 79 percent. But it does stink for those of us who don’t like using a case. Pour one out for the case-less fiends.
I can recall dozens of times when I’ve had to take my iPhone case off to attach a wireless microphone to the USB-C port or to fit the phone on a gimbal. Removing the case didn’t change anything because iPhones have magnets built in, but this is something that will impact Qi2 Ready phones, and it’s a frustrating limitation.
I think Qi2 Ready phones are an acceptable in-between measure. Considering it’s cheaper than embedding magnets into a phone, I hope it means more budget and midrange smartphones can enjoy Qi2 capabilities.
Still, I worry that this will make things confusing for the average person. New phones will support Qi but not Qi2, but they’ll have Qi2 Ready cases to enable Qi2—my brain hurt just writing that. If they just had native Qi2 support, magnetic charging would work all the time with any Qi2 accessory. Easy peasy.
The good news is that Samsung and Google have committed to releasing official Qi2 Android phones in 2025, so it is on the way, though it does feel bizarre that Samsung may not end up debuting it on its flagship smartphone series.
I’ll make do with a magnetic case (again), but for the love of God, can someone just give me my magnetic Android already?
Google worked with the Israeli military in the immediate aftermath of its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, racing to beat out Amazon to provide AI services, according to company documents obtained by the Washington Post.
In the weeks after Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel, employees at Google’s cloud division worked directly with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — even as the company told both the public and its own employees that Google only worked with civilian government ministries, the documents reportedly show.
Weeks after the war began, an employee with Google’s cloud division escalated the IDF’s military’s requests for access to Google’s AI technology, according to the Post. In another document, an employee warned that Google needed to quickly respond to the military’s requests, or else Israel would turn to Amazon for its cloud computing needs. In a November 2023 document, an employee thanks a coworker for handling the IDF’s request. Months later, employees requested additional access to AI tools for the IDF.
Amid this, Google was punishing employees for protesting Project Nimbus, Israel’s $1.2 billion contract for Google and Amazon’s cloud computing services. Google fired 28 employees who staged sit-in protests at the company’s offices in New York and California, some of whom were also arrested during the demonstrations.
At the same time, Google denied that it was working with the Israeli military. “We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial cloud by Israeli government ministries, who agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy,” Anna Kowalczyk, the external communications manager for Google Cloud, told The Verge in April 2024. “This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” Kowalczyk said.
Google did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
Streaming service Plex has long since grown beyond its original focus of being a home for personal media to offer a more comprehensive solution for discovering, streaming, and sharing content across services, including Plex’s own ad-supported free TV and movies. More recently, the company added social networking features, which it’s today expanding with its rollout of new functionality. Notably, this includes a way to share your Plex profile publicly and tools to let others read your TV and movie reviews and then comment in return.
Plex first introduced social networking in November 2023 when it launched a feature called “Discover Together,” which allowed users to create profiles on the service and then find and follow friends to see what they were watching. (The feature initially received some backlash as some Plex users were unhappy about its opt-out nature. Plex now notes that content flagged as adult won’t appear in users’ Activity fees, which was one of the users’ concerns.)
While it was a shift for the company, offering a more social experience on Plex allows it to better compete not only with other free, ad-supported streamers but also with dedicated social networks for movie and TV reviews like Letterboxd and TV Time, among others.
With today’s release, Plex says users will now be able to share a public URL that points to their profile on the service on watch.plex.tv. By default, users will be findable by others on Plex via the app’s search, unless they’ve already turned this off in their settings.
People who view your user profile will be able to see what you’ve been watching, what’s on your Watchlist, and more. This does not change any of your existing privacy settings, Plex notes.
In addition, Plex users will have the option to make their Ratings & Reviews visible to other users on Plex through a new setting. Here, you can choose between allowing anyone to see these reviews or only those signed in to Plex. You can also choose that your reviews are only visible to Friends or Friends of Friends, or you can make all your Ratings & Reviews private if desired.
Alongside the social networking features, Plex is also launching a preview of its new user interface, initially on Apple TV. The redesign includes updated navigation, more personal media customization, easier feature access, a richer experience with more artwork, and Plex’s various social networking features, the company says in its announcement.
For power users, Plex Pass subscribers (paid users) will gain access to HEVC hardware encoding for better video quality while saving bandwidth. This option was previously in preview mode with select users but is now available to all subscribers.
A joint venture called The Stargate Project will contribute $500 billion over four years to generative AI infrastructure in the U.S., representatives of SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle announced in partnership with President Donald Trump on Jan. 21.
The joint venture will support infrastructure, including data centers, contributing to what OpenAI calls a “computing system.”
“This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,” OpenAI wrote in a Jan. 21 post on X (formerly Twitter). “This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”
“It’s big money and high-quality people,” Trump said at a White House press conference, according to the Associated Press.
At least one location confirmed in Texas
OpenAI will initially contribute $100 billion to the project, with the other $400 billion coming at an undisclosed pace over the next four years.
OpenAI said building a data center associated with the project has already begun in Abilene, Texas.
“We are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as we finalize definitive agreements,” OpenAI wrote.
Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison said 10 data centers were already built or under construction.
SEE: AI adoption tends to weaken companies’ chances of meeting sustainability goals, according to a report released in January.
Which companies are involved?
The initial equity funders are:
- Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank.
- OpenAI.
- Oracle.
- MGX, a technology investment firm located in the United Arab Emirates.
SoftBank will be responsible for The Stargate Project’s finances, while OpenAI will handle operations.
Other initial technology partners are:
“This builds on a deep collaboration between OpenAI and NVIDIA going back to 2016 and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle,” OpenAI wrote.
Trump’s administration will ease the way for more data centers in the United States, he said on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. That easement may include unspecified “emergency declarations” around The Stargate Project potentially generating its own electricity.
Building out AI involves rethinking data and power needs
“Our current infrastructure is not ready for the demands AI will require for full maturation,” said Sean Tufts, managing partner for critical infrastructure and operational technology at Optiv, in an email to TechRepublic. “This team is a perfect trifecta to embolden a new ecosystem. Bringing together the boldest AI firm, one of the largest data and cloud companies, and one of the most innovative financiers. This is the type of public/private partnership that America’s innovators thrive on.”
Tufts suggested a power generation company should join the group to address electrical needs. In addition to chips, robust data centers, and more efficient cooling, he said, power is one of the pillars required for increased support for generative AI technologies.
Refresh
Samsung is showing off improvements to features we’ve seen before, like transcripts on calls, and other improved AI generative text and speech features.
Samsung’s Drew Blackard is showing a preview of upcoming Galaxy AI, and we get to see the Now Brief and Now Bar, two new AI driven features that will deliver news and updates about your day.
Roh is saying today marks a beginning of a new reality. We’re going to hear a lot of this sort of talk today. A new beginning, opening a door, starting something big. We’re at the start of the new mobile AI phase, not in the middle. Samsung is going to start collecting what it needs to build a more robust Galaxy AI, but it isn’t quite here yet.
That’s fine, the phone is still going to be a top performer. Hopefully we’ll see more about the features available today, instead of just talking about tomorrow.
Roh is back on stage saying the Galaxy S25 will understand not only your commands, but also your intentions. You can talk the way you talk to your friend, and initiate multiple actions with one button press. Roh says it will anticipate your needs.
No specifics on how it will do all of this, but Roh is moving onto privacy. The Personal Data Engine on the Galaxy S25 will keep all of this personal data secure with Samsung’s KNOX security, which is no joke. But what data will it store? We haven’t heard specific examples yet.
Samsung’s President of the Mobile eXperience group, TM Roh, has taken the stage and immediately announced the Galaxy S25 family. Now Roh has handed off to Google to talk about Gemini and new features coming first to the Galaxy S25.
Go go go! We are go for Galaxy Unpacked. The Live stream should start any minute, and I’m watching at Samsung.com.
I can also tell you now that I’ve gotten hands-on time with the entire new Galaxy S25 family, including the Galaxy S25 Plus and Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Read my hands-on look at the Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy S25 Plus, and Lance’s hands-on with the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Samsung isn’t just throwing a party in San Jose, today. Our reporters in the UK are also on the scene for a special hands-on opportunity with Samsung and the new phones. Clearly the 10am Samsung crowd in California is different from the 6pm Samsung crowd across the pond.
If you weren’t sure that today’s star would be Galaxy AI, even more than the Galaxy S25, just look at that drink! When the ice cube says AI, believe it.
One of the biggest questions we have remaining today surrounds the mysterious, so-called Samsung Galaxy S25 Slim. Apple has been rumored to be working on a slimmer version of its iPhone, now presumably called the iPhone Air. Samsung could also be leading the charge with a slimmer Galaxy S25 today, a Galaxy S25 Slim.
Last minute rumors suggest that the slimmer Galaxy S phone may not appear today, but could show up later in the year, around May. The Galaxy S25 Slim may not come to the US, either, presumably because we don’t like things that are Slim here? Who knows.
We’ll keep a look out for any executives carrying incredibly slim Galaxy phones, but until we know for sure, keep following for the latest news and rumors.
Ok Galaxy fans, today is your day. If you’ve been following the leaks and rumors about the upcoming Galaxy S25 family so far, you haven’t seen a whole lot that’s new. We’re expecting a new look for the Galaxy S25 Ultra that brings it closer to the other Galaxy S25 family, with rounded corners and a smooth back, but we haven’t seen many other new hardware features. Is Samsung hiding all the good stuff inside?
Undoubtedly, as Samsung will definitely be using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and it will probably be overclocked just for Samsung with a for Galaxy badge attached. That means the Galaxy S25 could the fastest phone ever, even faster than the iPhone 16 Pro. What will Samsung do with so much power? That’s what we’re waiting to find out.
We’re 30 minutes from Galaxy Unpacked and your TechRadar editors are live on the scene at the SAP Center in San Jose, CA! Our Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff is covering the news as it happens, then going hands-on with all the new devices, while our video guru Viktoria Shillets captures live footage for all of our TechRadar channels. We’ll keep this Live Blog going throughout the show, so stay tuned to this channel.
Samsung employs Corning’s new Gorilla Armor 2 glass on the S25 Ultra, which supposedly has 29 percent better resistance to fractures than the original Gorilla Armor on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Interestingly, Samsung says it saw a 60 percent drop in screen repairs from the S24 over the S23 series, which could mean the S25 is even more durable.
The phones are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which has debuted in phones like the Honor Magic 7 Pro and OnePlus 13. This will be the processor in all Samsung Galaxy S25 series phones globally, unlike prior years when Samsung opted for its own Exynos chips in some markets. Samsung claims this chip offers a 37 percent CPU upgrade, a 30 percent graphics boost, and a 40 percent improved neural processing unit when compared to the S24 series.
Samsung and Qualcomm collaborated on optimizing the chip, and that close tie has enabled new features like ProScaler. On the S25 Ultra and S25+, this feature can upscale images on the screen to match the display resolution. Say you’re browsing Instagram and someone uploaded a 1,080p image—it will be upscaled to QHD+.
The vapor chamber cooling system is larger on all three—a crucial component to keep the phones from getting too hot during intense gaming sessions—with the chamber in the S25 Ultra getting a 40 percent size bump. Samsung also says sitting on top of the chip is a new “tailored thermal interface material” that leaves zero gaps for air, pulling heat from the processor directly to the vapor chamber cooling system to increase performance and reduce stress on the battery.
Arguably the most disappointing part of the hardware story is the lack of support for Qi2 charging. This is the new version of the Qi wireless charging standard, which borrows a lot of features from Apple’s MagSafe charging system. It embeds magnets into the phone, allowing users to magnetically attach the phone to a Qi2 charger for more efficient and faster wireless charging, plus the convenience of magnetic accessories to enhance the phone. I expected to see several Qi2 Android phones in 2024, but all we got was HMD’s Skyline. Now, in a move that’ll make things more confusing, the Galaxy S25 series is being classified as “Qi2 ready.”
This is a new classification for phones that won’t have the built-in magnets but will feature official and third-party Qi2 cases with magnets inside, essentially bringing a similar if not the same magnetic experience as a proper Qi2 device. Android users who want MagSafe’s utility have had to rely on these cases so far, so it’s just a shame that Qi2 is still not natively part of these brand new phones.
Camera specs are roughly the same as before, with the ultrawide being the exception on the Galaxy S25 Ultra—it now packs 50 megapixels instead of 12. Samsung says this in turn boosts the quality of macro photos. There are some more interesting changes to the image processing algorithm. Samsung’s next-gen ProVisual Engine uses a “spatial-temporal filter” to distinguish between moving and stationary objects to ensure photo subjects don’t blur when capturing a picture in low-light conditions. Double-analysis noise removal analyzes every pixel for noise, looks at eight pixels around it, and removes the noise to clean up the image.
How to watch Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked 2025.
Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event kicks off at 1PM ET. We’re expecting the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Plus, and Galaxy S25 Ultra, but Samsung may have a few surprises. Who knows? We’ll also have a story stream with all the news from San Jose, California, if you want to follow along.
Billionaire Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are fighting on X about Stargate, the enormous infrastructure project to build data centers for OpenAI across the U.S.
Stargate, announced Tuesday during a press conference at the White House, would funnel as much as $500 billion from investors including SoftBank and Middle East AI fund MGX into data centers to support OpenAI’s AI workloads. Partners in Stargate have initially pledged $100 billion, some of which is being put toward a data center under construction in Abilene, Texas.
Elon Musk claims that Stargate doesn’t have the money it says it does.
“The don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote in a series of posts on X on Tuesday. “SoftBank has well under $10 billion secured. I have that on good authority.”
SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 22, 2025
Musk, of course, is not a neutral party. He has his own AI company, xAI, that competes — and is currently embroiled in a lawsuit — with OpenAI. In the suit, xAI and Musk accuse OpenAI of anticompetitive practices, including discouraging investors in OpenAI from backing AI rivals.
Altman fired back at Musk in an X post Wednesday — and called his bluff.
“Wrong, as you surely know,” Altman said, responding to Musk’s allegation that SoftBank was short of capital. “[Stargate] is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you’ll mostly put America first.”
wrong, as you surely know.
want to come visit the first site already under way?
this is great for the country. i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put 🇺🇸 first.
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 22, 2025
Musk is spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a U.S. government advisory commission recommending deep cuts to federal agencies. DOGE was made more official Monday by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, but the commission faces a number of legal challenges.
xAI, like OpenAI, is hungry for infrastructure to develop its AI systems. Musk’s company is estimated to have spent $12 billion on its single data center in Memphis, Tennessee, and could spend billions more upgrading the facility.
Asked about Musk’s X posts during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, a close OpenAI collaborator and investor, declined to weigh in. “All I know is, I’m good for my $80 billion,” he said, referring to Microsoft’s recent pledge to spend a record amount on AI data centers this year.
California-based Vast Space has big ambitions. The company is aiming to launch a commercial space station, the Haven-2, into low Earth orbit by 2028, which would allow astronauts to stay in space after the decommissioning of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2030. In doing so, it is attempting to muscle in on NASA’s plans to develop commercial low-orbit space stations with partner organizations—but most ambitious of all are Vast Space’s goals for what it will eventually put into space: a station that has its own artificial gravity.
“We know that in weightlessness we can live a year or so, and in conditions that are not easy. Perhaps, however, lunar or Martian gravity is enough to live comfortably for a lifetime. The only way to find out is to build stations with artificial gravity, which is our long-term goal,” says Max Haot, Vast’s CEO.
Vast Space was founded in 2021 by 49-year-old programmer and businessman Jed McCaleb, the creator of the peer-to-peer networks eDonkey and Overnet, as well as the early and now defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox. Vast Space announced in mid-December a partnership with SpaceX to launch two missions to the ISS, which will be milestones in the company’s plan to launch its first space station, Haven-1, later in 2025. The missions, still without official launch dates, will fall within NASA’s private astronaut missions program, through which the space agency wants to promote the development of a space economy in low Earth orbit.
For Vast, this is part of a long-term business strategy. “Building an outpost that artificially mimics gravity will take 10 to 20 years, as well as an amount of money that we don’t have now,” Haot admits. “However, to win the most important contract in the space station market, which is the replacement of ISS, with our founder’s resources, we will launch four people on a [SpaceX] Dragon in 2025. They will stay aboard Haven-1 for two weeks, then return safely, demonstrating to NASA our capability before any competitor.”
Space for One More?
What Vast Space is trying to do, by showing its capabilities, is get involved in NASA’s Commercial Destinations in Low Earth Orbit (CLD) program, a project the space agency inaugurated in 2021 with a $415 million grant to support the development of private low-Earth orbit stations.
The money was initially allocated to three different projects: one from aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman, which has since exited the progam; a joint venture called Starlab; and Orbital Reef, from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Vast has no contract with the US space agency, but it aims to outstrip its competitors by showing NASA that it can put a space station into space ahead of these others. The agency will choose which project’s station to back in the second half of 2026.
By doing this, Vast is borrowing from SpaceX’s playbook. Not only has Vast Space drawn some of its employees and the design of equipment and vehicles from Elon Musk’s company, it’s also trying to replicate its approach to market: to be ready before anyone else, by having technologies and processes already qualified and validated in orbit. “We are lagging behind,” Haot says. “What can we do to win? Our answer, in the second half of 2025, will be the launch of Haven-1.”
Haven-1 will have a habitable volume of 45 cubic meters, a docking port, a corridor with consumable resources for the crew’s personal living quarters, a laboratory, and a deployable communal table set up next to a domed window about a meter high. On board, roughly 425 kilometers above Earth’s surface, the station will use Starlink laser links to communicate with satellites in low Earth orbit, tech that was first tested during the Polaris Dawn mission in the autumn of 2024.
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