Although the International Space Station (ISS) is not yet retired, private space companies are already racing to replace it in low Earth orbit. A new California-based company aims to appoint SpaceX as its launch partner, making it the first commercial space station to reach orbit.
Vast announced in its announcement that it plans to launch Haven-1 into low Earth orbit before August 2025 with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
After the station is deployed, the company wants to send a crew of four to the space station with the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, who will spend 30 days in orbit. “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 towards making that future a reality,” said Tom Ochinero, SpaceX Senior Vice President, Commercial Affairs, in a statement.
While Vast is a relatively new name in the space industry, it specializes in space settlement. The company was founded last year by crypto billionaire Jed McCaleb and moved to Long Beach, California earlier this year, becoming the latest member of the group dubbed “Space Beach”.
The first module Vast will send into space will be just 10 meters long and 4 meters wide, barely enough to fit four people. Haven-1 will initially be a crewed space station in its own right and will later merge with a larger space station currently in development.
Vast aims to build a 100-meter station, which consists of many modules and creates its own artificial gravity with the rotation movement. While the first module is small enough to fit inside a Falcon 9, larger components to be launched in the future will need to use SpaceX’s massive rocket Starship.
Of course, Vast isn’t the only company aiming to be the first commercial space station in orbit. Axiom Space also plans to launch the first module for its space station in 2025 and launch the second module in 2026. In short, the race to build the first commercial space station can easily be said to have begun.
As this race continues at a rapid pace, the ISS is scheduled to end its mission in 2031 and drop into the Pacific Ocean.
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