The Vast company has launched the “Haven-1” project and has just formalized SpaceX’s participation. This start-up, specializing in commercial space stations, will send a first prototype into orbit in 2025. In this case, Elon Musk’s company should take care of the launch with its Falcon 9 rocket.
According to the first plans, the “Haven-1” station should operate autonomously. It will be able to accommodate four people for short stays in space (around a month). From 2025 the young company hopes to send tourists into low orbit with its module and the help of SpaceX.
Vast and Haven: One Man’s Dream
The start-up Vast is already taking reservations for this first space flight. Scientific or philanthropic missions such as SpaceX’s Inspiration 4 project will be highlighted in the choice of participants. Vast also announced that a second orbital mission would take place in early 2026.
Jed McCaleb, founder and CEO of Vast justified this ambitious schedule by a rapid search for results and financial stability. This investor, who has succeeded in the world of cryptocurrencies, claims to have already invested 300 million dollars in his company. He explains that he does not want to seek outside investors until the station is placed in orbit and generates revenue.
In 2025 Vast should therefore have placed its first module in orbit. But the project is far from stopping there. Ambitious, McCaleb wants to quickly expand the station to reach 100 meters in length. He would also like to set up an artificial gravitational system to make life easier in space.
To do this he could use centrifugal force. By rotating the station around itself, the tourist astronauts would be thrown against the wall, mimicking a force of gravity. This false attraction is mandatory to allow untrained tourists not to develop the after-effects of their trip.
Commercial space stations: a desirable future?
Because since the year 2000, space has been inhabited by professional astronauts aboard the ISS. Before the launch of this international space station, the Russians had the Mir station and the Americans used it in the space shuttle to carry out long missions in orbit.
The last 20 years have therefore been those of cooperation. Professional astronauts have carried out hundreds of scientific missions to learn more about the human body, as well as the nuances between our physique and that which rules the roost in space. But only with rare exceptions have tourists come to join in this space adventure.
With the programmed death of the ISS, private industrialists see space tourism as a new Eldorado. Several companies, other than Vast, are also working on the creation of stations in orbit. One of the best known is called Axiom Space.
