California-based Vast Space has big ambitions. The company aims to launch a commercial space station, Haven-2, into low-Earth orbit in 2028, which will allow astronauts to remain in space after the International Space Station (ISS) is decommissioned in 2030. trying to implement NASA’s plan to develop a commercial low-orbit space station with partner organizations—but the most ambitious is Vast Space’s goals for what it will do. space: a station that has its own artificial gravity. “We know that without weight we can live for a year or more, and in difficult conditions. But, perhaps, the gravity of the moon or Mars is enough to live comfortably for a lifetime. The only way to find out is to build a station with artificial gravity, that is our long-term goal,” said Max Haot, CEO of Vast. Vast Space was founded in 2021 by programmer and entrepreneur Jed McCaleb, 49 years old, who created it. from peer-to-peer networks eDonkey and Overnet, as well as the early and now defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox. Vast Space announced a partnership with SpaceX in mid-December to launch two missions to the ISS, which will be a milestone in the company’s plan to launch the first space station, Haven-1, later in 2025. The mission, still without an official launch date. , will be part of NASA’s personal astronaut mission program, where the space agency wants to promote the economic development of space in low Earth orbit. Graphical representation of Haven-1 in orbit. Photo: Vast SpaceFor Vast, this is part of a long-term business strategy. “Building a post that artificially imitates gravity will take 10 to 20 years, and the amount of money we don’t have right now,” Haot admitted. “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 people in a [SpaceX] Dragon in 2025. They will stay aboard Haven-1 for two weeks, then return safely, demonstrating our capabilities to NASA before any competitors. “Space for One More? in NASA’s Commercial Purposes in Low Earth Orbit (CLD) program, a project that the space agency inaugurated in 2021 with a $415 million grant to support the development of a private low Earth orbit station. The money was initially allocated for three different projects: one of aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman, which has exited the program; and Orbital Reef, from Blue Origin. Vast does not have a contract with the US space agency, but aims to extend it the competitor by showing NASA that it can place the space station before the others. The agency will choose the station that will return in the second half of 2026. By doing this, Vast borrowed from the SpaceX playbook. Not only did Vast Space attract some employees and equipment and vehicles from Elon Musk’s company, but it also tries to imitate its approach to the market: ready before others, with technologies and processes that have been qualified and validated in orbit. . “We’re behind,” Haot said. “What can we do to win? Our answer, in the second half of 2025, will be the launch of Haven-1. laboratory, and a deployable communal table set up next to the dome window about a meter high. In that place, about 425 kilometers above the surface Earth, the station will use the Starlink laser link to communicate with satellites in low Earth orbit, a technology first tested during the Polaris Dawn mission in fall 2024.
