California's vast space Have big ambitions. The company aims to launch a commercial space station, Haven-2, into low Earth orbit by 2028, which would allow astronauts to live in space. International Space Station (ISS) in 2030. By doing this, he is trying to move forward NASA's There are plans to develop commercial low-orbit space stations with partner organizations – but the most ambitious are the goals of the giant space station that will eventually be put into space: a station with its own artificial gravity.
“We know that in weightlessness we can survive for a year or more, and those conditions are not easy. Perhaps, however, the gravity of the Moon or Mars is enough to comfortably last a lifetime. The only way to find out is to build stations with artificial gravity, which is our long-term goal,” says Max Haot, CEO of Vaast.
Vast Space was founded in 2021 by Jed McCaleb, a 49-year-old programmer and businessman who is the creator of peer-to-peer networks eDonkey and Overnet, as well as startup and Now defunct crypto exchange Mt. GoxVast Space announced the partnership in mid-December spacex To launch two missions to the ISS, which will be milestones in the company's plans to launch Its first space station, Haven-1, will launch later in 2025.The missions, still without official launch dates, will fall under NASA's Private Astronaut Missions program, through which the space agency seeks to promote the development of a space economy in low Earth orbit.
For Vaast, this is part of a long-term business strategy. “Creating an outpost that artificially mimics gravity would take 10 to 20 years, and a huge amount of money that we don't have right now,” admits Haot. “However, to win the most important contract in the space station market, which is the replacement of the ISS, with the resources of our founder, we will launch four [SpaceX] Dragon in 2025. They will stay on Haven-1 for two weeks, then return safely and demonstrate our capabilities to NASA before any competitor.”
Room for one more?
Vast Space is trying to join NASA by showing its capabilities commercial destinations in low earth orbit (CLD) program, a project the space agency inaugurated in 2021 with a $415 million grant to support the development of private low-Earth orbit stations.
had money Initially allocated to three different projects: from Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and defense company that has since exited the program; a joint venture called Starlab; and Orbital Reef from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Vaast has no contract with the US space agency, but its goal is to beat its competitors by showing NASA that it can put a space station in space before other space stations. The agency will choose which project station to commission in the second half of 2026.
By doing so, the giant is borrowing from SpaceX's playbook. Vast Space not only employed some of its staff and designed equipment and vehicles Elon Musk's The company is also trying to reiterate its approach to the market: to be prepared before anyone else by having qualified and validated technologies and processes already in the class. “We're falling behind,” says Haot. “What can we do to win? Our answer, in the second half of 2025, will be the launch of Haven-1.
Haven-1 will have a habitable volume of 45 cubic meters, a docking port, a corridor with consumable resources to the crew's individual living quarters, a laboratory and a communal table installed next to a domed window about a meter high. About 425 kilometers above Earth's surface, the station will use the Starlink laser link to communicate with satellites in low Earth orbit, the first time the technology was tested. polaris dawn Mission in autumn 2024.