Investing.com — Vast, a company known for its space habitation technology, has announced that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will launch up to two Dragon missions to the International Space Station (ISS) in support of Vast’s future bid for NASA’s private astronaut missions (PAM). These missions are contingent on Vast being chosen by NASA and will be the fifth and sixth PAMs ever awarded by the agency.
Vast is currently developing Haven-1, a private space station expected to be the world’s first commercial station when it launches in 2025. In the meantime, the company plans to use additional missions to the ISS in partnership with NASA to draw on the agency’s extensive expertise. These missions will provide opportunities for collaboration with private individuals and international space agency customers through the NASA PAM program.
Vast is also preparing to compete with its Haven-2 design in NASA’s upcoming Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destination (CLD) Phase II program. This program is expected to select a successor to the ISS. Max Haot, Chief Executive Officer of Vast, stated that enabling payload and crewed missions to the ISS is a key part of Vast’s strategy, allowing them to further their collaboration with NASA and global space agencies.
The two missions will expand Vast’s launch manifest with SpaceX, which includes the Falcon 9 rocket delivering Haven-1 to low-Earth orbit and a subsequent Dragon mission to fly crew to the commercial space station. Haven-1 will also be supported by Starlink laser-based high-speed internet.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s President and Chief Operating Officer, expressed excitement to work with Vast as they build more opportunities and destinations for more people to travel amongst the stars.
With SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Dragon human spaceflight system, a Vast PAM mission is set to achieve multiple NASA objectives. These include increasing the number of PAM providers, more widely sharing the knowledge and experience gained from conducting PAM missions, and supporting NASA in further meeting its mandate of enabling a low-Earth orbit (LEO) space economy.
NASA’s PAM strategy, introduced in 2019, was designed to accelerate a burgeoning LEO space economy and highlight the utility of future commercial destinations. The success of these missions has subsequently increased the demand for more PAMs, now exceeding NASA’s supply of opportunities as the ISS nears retirement in 2030.
Vast is in active discussions with multiple governments regarding PAMs, including the Czech Republic, which signed an MOU with Vast in November 2024. In preparation for missions to Haven-1 and the NASA CLD Phase II contract competition, NASA’s PAM program offers Vast an additional opportunity to demonstrate its capability and competency to plan, manage, and safely and successfully execute a crewed mission in its entirety.
Vast, founded in 2021 by Jed McCaleb, is developing humanity’s next-generation space stations and pioneering the path to long-term living and thriving in space. The company’s long-term ambition is to create artificial gravity habitations that enable humans to live in space, reaffirming its commitment to ensuring a spacefaring future for all.
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