Finalist: Krystle Caponio

Chief Legal Officer
Vast Space LLC
Loyola Law School

Krystle Caponio is a founding team member and chief legal officer at Vast Space LLC, which is developing artificial gravity space stations to expand humanity across the solar system. Vast is launching what’s currently scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station in 2025, on a SpaceX launch vehicle. Previously, Caponio served as legal counsel at SpaceX for over six years, as well as being an early team member and general counsel at other successful space startups, and she is committed to seeing humans sustainably living and thriving in space during our lifetime. Since 2022, she has helped build Vast from a small startup to a world-class organization disrupting the space industry, with headcount nearing 500 and growing.