MILAN — Vast Space unveiled the design of the space station it plans to propose to NASA in the next phase of the agency’s program to develop commercial successors to the International Space Station.
The company outlined its plans for the Haven-2 station in a release timed to the opening of the International Astronautical Congress here Oct. 14, describing how it will deploy the station in segments starting in the late 2020s.
Vast has to date focused on Haven-1, the single-module station it plans to launch in the second half of 2025 to be visited by up to four missions for short stays. However, the company has made clear its intent is to compete for the second phase of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations, or CLD, program as part of the agency’s ISS transition efforts.
“Our competitors have put out designs of what they plan to do, and Vast has only shown Haven-1,” said Max Haot, chief executive of Vast, in an interview. “This is really the first time to explain what we intend to do.”
Haven-2 will start with a single module launched on a Falcon Heavy as soon as 2028. The module will be based on Haven-1 but will be five meters longer and have twice the usable volume as Haven-1, and also will have docking ports on each end.
Launching that first module in 2028 would ensure an overlap with the ISS, he noted, and protect against events like an early Russian withdrawal from the ISS partnership that might keep the ISS from operating to 2030 as NASA current projects.
Vast then plans to launch three additional modules roughly six months apart in 2029 and 2030. The modules will be docked together in line. The modules will be effectively identical to one another but outfitted with different lab facilities. Vast will also use this time to upgrade the station’s initial open-loop life support system to a closed-loop one by the time the fourth module is in place.
The next phase of the station’s development will involve the launch of a larger core module, seven meters in diameter, on a SpaceX Starship in 2030. The four existing modules will undock from one another and attach to four separate ports on the new core module in a cross shape. There will be an additional docking port as well as a separate berthing port and robotic arm for visiting vehicles not able to autonomously dock.
The core module will also include an airlock for spacewalks, or EVAs. “It’s not actually a current CLD known requirement,” Haot said of the airlock, “but we believe the nation should keep the ability to test spacesuits and do EVAs in low Earth orbit.”
Vast then plans to launch four more modules that will be attached to the original four modules. They will again be based on the same design of the first four but two will have special features. One will have a cupola 3.8 meters in diameter, significantly larger than the one on the ISS, and another external payload racks and airlock like those on the ISS Kibo module.
“By that time, it’s more capable than the ISS,” he said of the Haven-2 station when completed in 2032, “and we hope and expect more capable than anything China and Russia have on orbit at that time.”
While Vast will depend on SpaceX’s Starship and Falcon Heavy to launch the Haven-2 modules, there will not be a dependency on the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The single-module Haven-1 station will use Crew Dragon for some life support capabilities, but Haot said those will be handled by systems on Haven-2 modules.
“If other vehicles are either more appealing or equally appealing commercially,” he said of crew transportation vehicles, “we’re definitely open to them.” He added that NASA may require CLD companies to support both Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner or other future commercial crew vehicles and not rely on a single company’s spacecraft.
Vast is similarly deferring to NASA on the orbit Haven-2 will be in. Also, while Vast has expressed an interest in developing spinning space stations that can provide artificial gravity, there are no plans for that capability on Haven-2. “Haven-2 is really designed for NASA as the anchor customer, and NASA’s requirement is the opposite of artificial gravity. It’s a microgravity laboratory in space.”
That focus on NASA is based on the near-term prospects for customers for Haven-2. Haot said the company sees long-term potential in commercial applications like in-space manufacturing of pharmaceuticals or semiconductors, but it is unclear how long it will take for those markets to emerge. Other customer segments include other national space agencies as well as private astronauts.
“We believe that with NASA as an anchor customer,” he said, along with companies and other space agencies, “we can be a profitable company.”
Winning a phase-two CLD award from NASA — which involves competing against Axiom Space, Blue Origin-led Orbital Reef and Starlab Space, which all received funded agreements from NASA in phase one of the program — is essential to Haven-2, he said. “We operate under the assumption that we are all-in on winning CLD.”
Haven-1 update
The announcement of Haven-2 comes days after the company provided an update on Haven-1. Vast showed off designs of the interior of the module, calling it a “human-centric industrial design” that “introduces new dimensions of bold creativity and efficiency.”
“Astronauts living in zero gravity pose unique design challenges. Creating an environment that is both highly efficient and naturally comforting leads to totally new results,” said Peter Russell-Clarke, the designer who led the work on Haven-1 interior design. “Haven-1 interiors are unprecedented, precisely engineered and sensitively designed to ensure its occupants thrive in space.”
Those design elements include a 1.1-meter domed window, new exercise system, a multi-use common area and the use of “safety-tested, fire-resistant maple wood veneer slats” as part of the module’s décor. The company said it has also developed a “patent-pending signature sleep system” to provide customized pressure for astronauts to ensure a sound sleep.
That design effort has been guided by people like former NASA astronaut Drew Feustel. “From communication and connectivity, to private space and interacting with others aboard,” he said in the statement, “every detail has been designed with the astronaut experience at the core of our work.”
Haot said in the interview that the company was still on track to launch Haven-1 in the second half of 2025. He also noted that Vast will have invested about $1 billion by the time it launches its first crew to the station a few months after the launch of Haven-1, a combination of capital provided by its founder, Jed McCaleb, as well as revenue from customers.
He said the company plans to leverage that investment for Haven-2. ““It’s very important to have continuity into Haven-2 to ensure that Haven-2 is low cost, can be built quickly, but also is on orbit as early as possible,” Haot said.