LONG BEACH, Calif., - Vast, a startup space company in El Segundo, Calif., announced their plans to launch the world’s first commercial space station, called Haven-1. It is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit no earlier than August 2025. Haven-1 will initially act as an independent crewed space station prior to being connected as a module to a larger Vast space station currently in development. The mission will be quickly followed by Vast-1, the first human spaceflight mission to Haven-1 on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The vehicle and its four-person crew will dock with Haven-1 for up to 30 days while orbiting Earth. Vast also secured an option with SpaceX for an additional human spaceflight mission to Haven-1.
This represents the first time in history that a commercial space station company has both a contracted launch for its space station and a visiting human spaceflight mission.
“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,” said Tom Ochinero, Senior Vice President of Commercial Business at SpaceX. “The SpaceX team couldn’t be more excited to launch Vast’s Haven-1 and support their follow-on human spaceflight missions to the orbiting commercial space station.”
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. In support of this, Vast will explore conducting the world’s first spinning artificial gravity experiment on a commercial space station with Haven-1.
Vast is selling up to four crewed seats on the inaugural mission to Haven-1. Expected customers include domestic and international space agencies and private individuals involved in science and philanthropic projects. Visit vastspace.com/reserve for more details.
SpaceX will also provide crew training on Falcon 9 and the Dragon spacecraft, emergency preparedness, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial and full mission simulations including docking and undocking with Haven-1 for return to Earth.
