Exciting news emerged from the space industry on Wednesday when Vast, a space start-up, announced the first ever commercial space station will launch soon. The Haven-1 station expects to reach orbit no sooner than August 2025.
Vast are relative newcomers to the industry but have the full support of industry giants SpaceX for their project. If successful, the launch will be a massive advancement in the commercial space travel sector.
The Haven-1 Space Station
Crypto billionaire Jed McCaleb is the creator of Vast LLC, which is based in Long Beach California.
According to the Vast website, they have a contract with SpaceX to launch the Haven-1 space station on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Vast-1 mission will launch on the SpaceX Dragon rocket with a 4-man crew, who will stay at the station for up to 30 days.
According to Space News, the Haven-1 is 33ft (10.1m) long and 12ft (3.8m) in diameter, weighs 14 tonnes (14,000kg) and is designed to fit inside the Dragon’s payload capacity.
The station will have Wi-Fi, 1,000 watts of power, a 24/7 communications system, a large viewing dome and a docking port. It will also have 150 kg of preloaded cargo capacity and can carry four astronauts.
According to Fox News, “Vast CEO Jed McCaleb says that the name Haven-1 is what the company ultimately wants to build – a safe haven for humans in space.”
Vast wants to be the first private company to send a station into low Earth orbit, but they aren’t the only one with plans for the first commercial space station.
Race To Replace The International Space Station
The international space station is due to retire in 2030, and according to CNN, NASA is partnering with several companies to develop commercial stations to replace it.
TechCrunch reports that competitors include Blue Origin by Jeff Bezos, who plans to launch Orbital Reef in the late 2020s. Voyager, by Lockheed Martin and Nanoracks, intends to launch their Starlab facility after 2027.
Axiom is the leading rival, as they also have a planned 2025 launch date for their station.
Vast says their aim to be the first commercial station in space is ambitious but attainable. They are using a simple design – so they can develop it quickly and safely, and initially, the Haven-1 will use the life support system of the Dragon rocket.
The Future Of Commercial Space Travel
Commercial space stations are the next major step towards private spaceflight and tourism. Haven-1 will operate independently at first, but the team hopes to eventually attach it as a module to a larger space station.
If the mission is successful, Vast will build much larger stations, including one to fit the much anticipated Starship for 2028. By 2030, they hope to have multiple (328ft (100m) long stations to accommodate 40 astronauts and a whole intergalactic fleet by 2040.
Payload reported that Tom Ochinero, senior vice president of commercial business at SpaceX, stated:
“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,”
