Vast astronaut mission kicks off commercial race to replace ISS
The race to replace the ageing International Space Station (ISS) is heating up after US company Vast announced a mission to fly an astronaut to its planned Haven-1 station next year. If the repeatedly delayed Haven-1 is launched into orbit as scheduled in early 2027, it will become historyโs first commercial space station, beating out several competitors. It would also mark a post-ISS era for humanityโs presence in space, as the West seeks independence from Russian space operations due to the war in Ukraine. After a quarter of a century of continuous habitation, the ISS is scheduled to be deorbited in 2030. On Tuesday, Vast became the first aerospace company to announce a crewed mission to its future station. โThis is an important milestone in a new era in crewed spaceflight that is less expensive โ and less reliant on Russia,โ Vast CEO Max Haot told AFP in an interview. โAttractive pricesโ French astronaut Arnaud Prost โis joining us on the crew of the inaugural mission of what will be the worldโs first operational commercial space station when it launches next yearโ, Haot said. On board Haven-1, Prost will be tasked with carrying out tests ahead of scientific experiments, which will be similar to those conducted on the ISS, he explained. The privately funded station will have a single module, compared to 16 currently on the ISS. During its three years in orbit, it will โhost four two-week missions,โ Haot said. Vast has bigger plans for its replacement. Haven-2 will eventually have nine modules, but the company plans to deploy them gradually over time. This will mean the modules cost โfive to 10 times lowerโ than those for the ISS, which often exceeded a billion dollars, Haot said. โThis will allow us to increase the number of crewed flights and offer more attractive prices to our customers,โ he added. โWe hope to launch three modules per year for our future station โ and that at least one module will be launched by a European rocket.โ The company aims to have four modules in space by 2030, which would support six-month missions on board. Other US aerospace companies also have plans to launch commercial space stations, including Axiom Space and Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezosโs Blue Origin. The California-based Vast, which was founded in 2021 by cryptocurrency billionaire Jed McCaleb, acknowledges it entered the race late. But the company now claims to be two years ahead of its rivals, citing contracts with NASA. European HQ Also on Tuesday, Vast announced a mission to send French astronaut Thomas Pesquet to the ISS next year. The company also plans to open its European headquarters in Paris. For both new missions, Vast will use SpaceXโs Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon 2 capsule to get the astronauts into space. When asked about relying on billionaire Elon Muskโs company, Haot said SpaceXโs โuniqueโ approach emphasised โspeed and rocket reusabilityโ. โItโs a model for everyone, and itโs the future of space,โ he said. โIf SpaceX had not succeeded in creating Dragon, Vast would not exist. And the United States and Europe would still be dependent on Russia to send humans into space.โ Despite many international cooperation agreements falling apart after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, the United States and other ISS partners have continued working with Russia on the space station.