As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) postpones the key bidding requirements for the follow-up commercial platform of the International Space Station (ISS), the American start-up Vast is accelerating the independent space station project. It hopes to use a platform that is compact, iterates quickly, and can be put into orbit before the end of this decade. It will not only meet the needs of American and international crews to reside in low-Earth orbit, but also "test the water" for emerging business models such as orbital manufacturing.
Vast’s first platform, Haven‑1, was deliberately designed to be “compact and pragmatic”: the entire platform weighs about 15 tons and will be launched into orbit unmanned aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It will first operate as an autonomous “satellite outpost” and then transition to a short-term manned mission stage after completing a series of on-orbit verifications. Max Haot, CEO of Vast, said in an interview with the media that the main structure and part of the secondary structure of Haven‑1 have been completed, the acceptance test ended in November last year, and the project has now entered the clean room integration stage.
The integration process will begin with the thermal control system and propulsion system, followed by the internal module and avionics, with the goal of completing the final module packaging by this fall, after which the entire platform will be sent to NASA's Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio for full ground testing. Haven‑1’s launch schedule has been pushed back from the originally planned mid-2026 to the first quarter of 2027, a point in time that Haot described as Vast’s “most realistic date that it’s confident it can deliver,” stressing that even with this slippage, the company is still about one to two years ahead of other commercial space station competitors.
In order to minimize the risk of manned missions, Haven‑1 will not carry a crew for the first time. After entering orbit, it will undergo an unmanned test period of at least two weeks to verify seal integrity, attitude control and overall system functional performance. Only after passing various technical milestones agreed in the contract and having partner SpaceX confirm that the station is suitable for the Crew Dragon spacecraft to dock, the first manned mission window will open. This window can open as early as two weeks after launch, or it may be postponed to any time within three years.
From an operational strategy perspective, Haven‑1 is more like a “scientific research outpost” optimized for short-term flights than a non-resident space station. The nominal plan is a short-term mission of 2 cycles: about 10 days are during the docking period between the Dragon spacecraft and the space station, and about 1 day is reserved for round-trip flights before and after. Vast has signed a full mission contract with SpaceX, with a second mission reserved through a deposit and option, and two potential missions are planned for a total of up to four crewed flights over a three-year design life; Haven‑1 also retains the possibility of extending the mission to a 30-day mission if customer needs or NASA requirements change.
The crew composition has not been finalized yet. Haot said the company is in "intensive negotiations" with private individuals and national customers, but will not announce specific candidates for the time being. It also acknowledged that with the launch date postponed to the first quarter of 2027, time pressure to finalize the first crew is increasing. Vast believes that if the joint training with the Dragon spacecraft and Haven‑1 as the target platform is started from scratch, the 1-year cycle is relatively "generous", and for an experienced astronaut team, it has the opportunity to be compressed to about 6 months. This flexibility provides the company with a certain buffer between matching customer contracts and the established flight rhythm.
After Haven‑1, the second space station planned by Vast, Haven‑2, will move towards a modular, long-term operation route: first, the first operational module will be launched in 2028, and then through continuous expansion, the entire station will be developed into a complex orbital complex composed of nine modules by 2032, directly benchmarking the ISS-level commercial successor platform. The first module of Haven‑2 continues the cabin diameter of Haven‑1 of about 4.4 meters, but the length of the cabin is increased from 10.1 meters to 16 meters, the launch mass is almost doubled to about 29 tons, and the corresponding on-orbit material reserve is also increased from 160 "crew days" of Haven‑1 to 720 "crew days".
According to Vast’s vision, Haven‑2 will launch a new module every about six months starting from 2028. The overall configuration has gradually evolved from the initial configuration of supporting a crew of 4 people (plus 4 people for rotating handover) to two cabins, three cabins, four cabins, etc., and continues to expand in terms of load capacity and power supply capabilities. The finalized 9-module version can support a permanent crew of 12, with a habitable cabin volume of approximately 500 cubic meters and a total pressurized volume of 1160 cubic meters. The total station power output is approximately 86 kilowatts, of which 40 kilowatts are reserved for scientific payloads and commercial equipment.
Vast is packaging Haven‑1 and Haven‑2 as flexible options for NASA's Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations (CLD) program, although NASA has not yet announced detailed technical and funding requirements for the second phase of the program, nor has it formally released a solicitation document. Haot said that the company is still weighing whether to bid for the 30-day Haven‑1 demonstration mission in 2027 or to go directly with the multi-module Haven‑2 solution. The real key variable still lies in NASA’s final caliber on the scale and capabilities of the demonstration mission.
Under NASA's existing CLD budget framework, officials expect five-year funding to support two major space station providers and related service contracts. Haot believes that Vast has the ability to maintain profitability with another "winner" under this structure; if the budget is further expanded in the future, there is theoretically room to accommodate a third commercial platform. He said that if no commercial space station is ready by then, the service life of the ISS should be moderately extended, but he also emphasized that Vast's goal is to complete the platform construction according to NASA's schedule, and NASA's policy design should also encourage this "delivery on schedule."
For Vast, the real test is not when the ISS is expected to retire in 2030, but whether the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the 15-ton Haven‑1 can send it into orbit as planned and successfully complete the transition from an unmanned platform to a short-term manned outpost. If the mission is successful, Vast will have access to capital that very few commercial aerospace companies currently have - a flight-proven and iterable space station architecture, and the time will be significantly earlier than the official retirement of the International Space Station.