Vast is working on what might just be the first commercial space station in low Earth orbit. To get the public excited about the station's launch as soon as one year from now, the company released a VR fly through, led by Vast's Lead Astronaut, that is available on Meta, Steam, and yes, Apple's platforms.
Called Haven-1, the small space station is capable of being launched on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, the most economical medium-lift rocket on the market. Vast has also partnered with SpaceX to launch its crew for two week-long missions with its Crew Dragon spacecraft and provide Starlink connection to the station for data relay and internet connection.
Vast's VR fly-through takes you through an artistic visual of what Haven-1 will look like when it's complete. Unlike the messy and complicated walls of various components, experiment bays, and storage on the International Space Station, Haven-1 is sleek and clean.
How much of that will find its way to the final version is unknown, but at least we have a starting block for visuals.
With a crew of 4, there's room on the station for crew quarters for sleep and personal time, a table that pops out of the floor… wall?… ceiling? And plenty of space for government and private research payloads.
Vast is hoping to become the winner of a NASA Commercial LEO Destination contract to be the home of NASA astronauts when the ISS is retired. While other companies are working on building their first station as a large ISS replacement, Vast is attempting to leapfrog everyone with this small, short-term used station that will be deorbited after only four uses.
Replacing Haven-1 will be Haven-2, a much larger, modular station that can support spacewalks, robotic arms, multiple visiting spacecraft, and a crew of twelve.
With Haven-1 set to launch next year, the only other company that would be able to compete in the short term is Axiom Space with its Axiom Station design. With the support of NASA, which was the only commercial station player at the time, it will first attach some of its modules to the ISS before detaching just before the ISS retirement at the end of the decade.
What Axiom currently has over Vast is experience managing crewed missions to the ISS. The company is planning to fly its fourth private astronaut mission to the station in the coming weeks, but Vast is coming for them, hoping to win the next round of missions from NASA.
For the meantime, enjoy Lead Astronaut Andrew Feutel, a former NASA astronaut, talking you through Haven-1's design in VR. If you don't happen to have a VR headset, you can still watch the experience on Vast's YouTube channel.
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