Vast at MASP

Long Beach-based Vast tests rocket engines and structures at the Mojave Air & Space Port.

 Courtesy Vast

A spacecraft-maker operating in eastern Kern County has become just the sixth private aerospace company to be invited aboard the International Space Station.

Long Beach-based Vast, which tests rocket engines and structures at the Mojave Air and Space Port, will send four of its astronauts to spend two weeks at the station as soon as next summer, NASA announced this week. Texas-based SpaceX is planned to handle the launch.