Cryptocurrency billionaire Jed McCaleb is spearheading an ambitious effort to build the world’s first privately developed space station and send it into Earth’s orbit. The story—he is prepared to risk $1 billion of his fortune to fund the mission.

What happened: In an interview with Bloomberg, the co-founder of Ripple Labs (CRYPTO: XRP) and the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox said, “It’s super important that people take this leap from where we are today to this potential world where there’s a lot of people living off the Earth.”

McCaleb’s California-based aerospace startup Vast is at the center of the mission, closely…