In a groundbreaking announcement, Vast, a frontrunner in space habitation technologies, has unveiled plans to launch the world’s first commercial space station, Haven-1, in partner with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Slated to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit no earlier than August 2025, Haven-1 is set to be an independent crewed space station before being integrated as a module into a larger Vast space station currently under development.
This unprecedented mission will be swiftly followed by Vast-1, marking the first human spaceflight mission to Haven-1 on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. This spacecraft, along with its four-person crew, is scheduled to dock with Haven-1 for up to 30 days in Earth’s orbit. Vast has also secured an option with SpaceX for an additional human spaceflight mission to Haven-1.
“A commercial rocket launching a commercial spacecraft with commercial astronauts to a commercial space station is the future of low-Earth orbit, and with Vast, we’re taking another step toward making that future a reality,” stated Tom Ochinero, Senior Vice President of Commercial Business at SpaceX, in a statement.
Below is the Vast Haven-1 hatch:
This represents the first instance in history that a commercial space station company has both a contracted launch for its space station and a visiting human spaceflight mission.
“Vast is thrilled to embark on this journey of launching the world’s first commercial space station, Haven-1, and its first crew, Vast-1. We are grateful to SpaceX for this exciting partnership that represents the first steps in Vast’s long-term vision of launching much larger, artificial gravity space stations in Earth orbit and beyond,” said Jed McCaleb, CEO of Vast.
The design of the Vast modules will be tailored to ingeniously fit inside a Falcon 9 rocket fairing, allowing for the payload to be delivered safely into orbit. Check out the image below for the size and scale of the module:
Vast’s long-term goal is to develop a 100-meter-long multi-module spinning artificial gravity space station launched by SpaceX’s Starship transportation system. To support this, Vast plans to conduct the world’s first spinning artificial gravity experiment on a commercial space station with Haven-1.
Check out a promo trailer below of how the missions will look like:
Vast is selling up to four crewed seats on the inaugural mission to Haven-1. Customers are expected to include domestic and international space agencies and private individuals involved in science and philanthropic projects.
