Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Vast, a self-described “pioneer in space habitation technologies,” have a lofty new goal. Teaming up, the two companies have announced their plans to institute the first-ever commercial space station as soon as August 2025.
The space station will be called the Haven-1 and will launch via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit. The Haven-1 will be independently crewed, with plans to connect it to a larger station that’s currently being developed by Vast.
The two companies plan to follow the initial set-up of the Haven-1 with a mission entitled Vast-1, where the first humans will fly to the space station via SpaceX’s Dragon rocket. A four-person crew will be docked on Haven-1 for a period of up to 30 days as it orbits Earth before returning home.
Vast and SpaceX’s partnership also offers the option of an additional human spaceflight to Haven-1 sometime in the future.
Vast CEO Jed McCaleb referred to the plans the company’s “first steps” in “launching much larger, artificial gravity space stations in Earth orbit and beyond.”
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