Vast's Haven-1 Private Space Station Looking Delayed

In a remarkable coincidence, the subject of the private space station being worked on by startup company called Vast Space came up in the comments to yesterday's post and today I stumbled across an update on their first launch, which will be the first module of their new, private space station. 

The story isn't surprising: it's that they're not going to meet their original schedule.  They were working to a launch this coming August and now expect their Haven-1 to launch No Earlier Than May 2026.  In my experience, it would be surprising if they met the first date they scheduled when they knew far less about the realities of building what they've been designing. 

Even with the delay, it's still an "ambitious timeline," the company said. But Vast remains optimistic: "If all goes as planned, we will have designed, built, and launched the world’s first commercial space station in three years — a pace never before achieved in human spaceflight."

Vast began building the Haven-1 module in July of '24 in their Long Beach, CA, headquarters. They transported the module to the company's test stand in Mojave, CA in January.  They've begun a long effort to measure the performance of the module against all of the specifications it was designed to.  The latest tests have passed on a very important performance requirement. 

Using dry nitrogen, Vast pressurized the module on the test stand twice — the first for a duration of five hours, and the second for 48 hours. According to the company's data, Haven-1's pressure sensors showed an "indiscernible" leak rate, exceeding the vessel's requirements and falling within compliance for NASA's crew-rated spacecraft qualifications.

This test module, currently still on the test stand, is not going to fly, but based on its performance to date, they've begun construction of the first flight-rated module.  

Vast's Haven-1 qualification article on the test stand in Mojave, CA. (Image credit: Vast Space)

As we've covered before, the International Space Station (ISS) is approaching retirement, with current plans to deorbit the ISS at the end of 2030.  NASA has been eager for companies to get commercial space stations up and running.  A handful of private contenders have voiced plans to construct their own LEO destinations — Vast Space, Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Sierra Space, Nanoracks, and others.

As those companies tread water while they gauge market demand or continue their station developments in the background, Vast says it's on track to get Haven-1 to orbit in record time, and has begun actively seeking out customers and scientists with research they want to fly to space.