Vast is a company that aims to develop artificial gravity space stations to expand life across the Solar System. It will soon take its first step to test the technologies through a partnership with SpaceX. On May 10, Vast announced its plans to launch the world’s first commercial space station, called Haven-1. The first module will launch atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket sometime in August 2025. “Vast is thrilled to embark on this journey of launching the world's first commercial space station, Haven-1, and its first crew, Vast-1,” said Vast CEO Jed McCaleb. “We are grateful to SpaceX for this exciting partnership that represents the first steps in Vast’s long-term vision of launching much larger, artificial gravity space stations in Earth orbit and beyond.”

Vast also signed a contract with SpaceX to launch the first crewed mission to Haven-1 aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft which will dock with Haven-1 with four astronauts. The first crewed mission is called ‘Vast-1’ during which the crew will test artificial gravity technology in Low Earth Orbit. They could spend up to 30 days orbiting Earth. The company also secured a contract for a second crewed flight aboard Dragon. Haven-1 module is designed to dock to a larger Vast space station that is currently under development. “Vast’s long-term goal is to develop a 100-meter-long multi-module spinning artificial gravity space station launched by SpaceX’s Starship transportation system,” shared SpaceX. The Starship spacecraft is also actively under development and is expected to be ready before 2025. 

“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,” said Tom Ochinero, Senior Vice President of Commercial Business at SpaceX. “The SpaceX team couldn’t be more excited to launch Vast’s Haven-1 and support their follow-on human spaceflight missions to the orbiting commercial space station.” The company shared a video of how Dragon will dock to the Haven-1 space station module, linked below. 

Vast-1 crew has not been selected yet; SpaceX will train them as their mission approaches. Their training will involve learning every detail of how the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft operate, emergency preparedness, and other mission simulations to train them for potential situations they may encounter in space. It is unknown if the crew members will be civilians or professional astronauts. Vast says it is selling four seats aboard the Crew Dragon Vast-1 mission on its official website astspace.com/reserve, however, the pricing is not publicly available on the website only to their customers. It is safe to assume that it is millions of dollars, a SpaceX seat aboard Crew Dragon costs over $55 million for NASA astronauts. 

VIDEO: SpaceX Crew Dragon docks to Vast Haven-1 Mission Animation

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Featured Image Source: Vast / SpaceX