SpaceX To Launch A Space Station in 2025

And it will have artificial gravity!

Vast Haven-1 render — Vast

In just two years, SpaceX plans to launch a private space station into orbit, complete with state-of-the-art artificial gravity, making it the first craft ever to have artificial gravity and the first commercial space station to launch. But this isn’t the brainchild of Elon Musk. Instead, SpaceX is just being used for the logistics. The Haven-1 space station is actually from the space industry’s youngest and most precocious player, Vast Space. This crypto-backed start-up aims to cement itself as the go-to for crewed space infrastructure. But is it up to the task?

Californian-based Vast Space recently enlisted SpaceX to launch its Haven-1 space station onboard a Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than August 2025. Once deployed, a SpaceX Dragon capsule mission will deliver a four-person crew to the station for 30 days. Vast is selling tickets for missions like this, but we don’t yet know the price.

However, this means it will beat Jeff Bezos’s Orbital Reef private space station and Axiom Space’s space station to orbit. Yet, Vast was only founded in 2021!

How has it been able to do this in such a short amount of time? Well, Haven-1 will be a tiny space station, only about the size of an American school bus. This means it is small enough and light enough to be launched by a Falcon 9 rocket in one go, with no need for expensive multiple launches and complex module assembly in space, like how the ISS was constructed. This means Haven-1 is a far less complicated endeavour than the ISS, Orbital Reef or Axiom Space’s ISS modules (that will eventually separate and form their own station), which not only makes it cheaper but means far, far less development needs to take place, meaning Vast has an opportunity to leapfrog the entire space industry.

But just because Haveb-1 is small doesn’t mean it won’t be impressive.