Most aerospace companies greet you with a security desk, a laminated visitor badge, and the faint smell of anxiety. Vast, the startup quietly building what could be humanity's next space station, greets you with a tree.

Not a sad little potted ficus, either. A full baobab tree, planted beneath a skylight in the center of a circular white lobby at the company's Long Beach, California headquarters. As Fast Company reports, the whole thing is finished off with a sleek aluminum reception desk and curved wood banquettes that hug the walls. It looks less like a place where engineers solve orbital mechanics problems and more like the set of a prestige sci-fi drama that actually had a budget.

Wait, why a baobab specifically?

Here's where it gets delightfully nerdy. The baobab is a direct nod to The Little Prince, the beloved 1943 novella about a small boy who hops between planets. The book famously features baobab trees as a recurring symbol, and apparently whoever designed this space decided that vibes matter just as much as viable rocket trajectories.

They are not wrong.

The symbolism is doing a lot of heavy lifting

It would be easy to roll your eyes at a tech startup leaning this hard into aesthetic storytelling. We've all seen enough Silicon Valley "think different" energy to last several lifetimes. But there's something genuinely compelling about a company building next-generation space infrastructure that roots itself - literally - in the poetic tradition of space wonder rather than just cold engineering ambition.

The circular lobby, the skylight, the literary reference - it all signals that Vast wants you to feel something when you walk in. That space isn't just an industry vertical. It's a destination. A dream. A baobab-adjacent adventure.

Should we be impressed or suspicious?

Honestly? Both. Great office design is notoriously the canary in the coal mine for startups more interested in the vibe than the product. But Vast appears to be doing actual work on an actual space station, so for now the tree gets a pass.

Besides, if you're going to spend your days figuring out how humans will live in orbit, you might as well do it somewhere that reminds you why anyone thought that was a good idea in the first place.

The Little Prince would approve. Probably.