Vast Space’s Haven‑1 aims to become the first standalone commercial space station, carrying forward the ISS’s scientific and human legacy while testing a faster, human‑centred model for life in low Earth orbit.

Animation image of the Haven-1 docking with the SpaceX Dragon. Image Credit: Vast.com

Haven‑1 is a single‑module, human‑centric commercial station being built by Vast Space with a planned un-crewed demo and a crewed mission targeted for mid‑2026, and it’s intended as both a proof‑of‑concept and a stepping stone toward larger commercial stations that could succeed the ISS when it retires around 2030.

Vast Unveils Haven-2: Our Proposed Successor to the International Space Station (ISS). From @vastspacestation

A Living Laboratory With an Eye for Design

Astronauts will have a clean, stylish lab to work in. Image Credit: Vast.com

Vast presents Haven‑1 as more than a metal can in orbit: the module is deliberately built around crew comfort and psychological wellbeing, with larger private quarters, a queen‑sized sleep system, wood‑veneer interior accents and a 1.1‑meter domed window for Earth views—design choices the company says are meant to improve life and work in microgravity compared with earlier stations.

Vast is putting the Haven-1 through extensive operational testing. Image Credit: Vast.com

The flight‑article primary structure recently passed qualification testing in Mojave, a milestone Vast called unusually rapid for station development and one that the company says meets rigorous pressure and leak standards—credentials it leans on to argue Haven‑1 is flight‑ready on schedule.

Scientists will be able to conduct unique zero gravity experiments aboard Haven-1. Image Credit: Vast.com

Why the ISS Matters — and What Haven‑1 is Inheriting

The International Space Station has been humanity’s flagship orbital laboratory for more than two decades, hosting hundreds of crew rotations, thousands of experiments, and multinational cooperation between NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA and CSA; its research program supported a large slate of biotech, materials and manufacturing experiments as recently as 2024. The ISS’s legacy is dual: hard technical know‑how about long‑duration spaceflight, and a demonstration that nations can collaborate on continuous human presence in LEO. Haven‑1 doesn’t try to replicate the ISS’s scale; it intends to inherit the ISS’s spirit—research, international access, and operational lessons—while pursuing a more commercial, customer‑focused model.

What Haven‑1 Will Actually Do (and What it Won’t)

Haven‑1 is sized for short crewed missions (initial plans spoke to four crew for roughly two weeks), with a lab bay offering multiple payload slots and gigabit‑class connectivity for remote experiments and manufacturing tests.

Schematic view of the Haven-1's design. Image Credit: Vast.com

That makes it well suited to microgravity R&D, private astronaut missions, media and Earth observation work, and the kind of rapid tech demonstrations commercial clients want. However, its single‑module architecture and limited consumables mean Haven‑1 is not a one‑for‑one ISS replacement: it cannot sustain the continuous seven‑person science tempo or the broad multinational facility footprint of the ISS. Vast frames Haven‑1 as a stepping stone—proof that a commercial operator can safely host humans and science in LEO before scaling to larger, modular stations like their proposed Haven‑2 or other CLD bidders could.

The Haven-2 module which will supersede the Haven-1. Image Credit: Vast.com

Haven-2 modules connected to form a larger LEO station. Image Credit: Vast.com

The Competitive Landscape: Many Contenders, Different Strategies

Vast isn’t the only company building the post‑ISS future. Axiom Space plans modular modules that will initially berth to the ISS before detaching into a free‑flying Axiom Station; Blue Origin and partners pitched Orbital Reef as a mixed‑use “business park” in orbit; and the Starlab concept from Nanoracks/Airbus/Lockheed aims for robust research capacity.

Animation image of the Axiom Station. Image Credit: AxiomSpace.com

Each program balances scale, timing, and customers differently—Axiom leans on modular expansion, Orbital Reef on multi‑partner campus-style operations, and Starlab on heavy research throughput. NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations program is explicitly designed to shepherd multiple commercial providers into the role of ISS successors, creating a competitive but collaborative market.

Limits, Risks, and Realism

Haven‑1’s speed is its selling point, but speed brings trade-offs. A small station needs frequent logistics and has less margin for systems redundancy; short mission durations limit continuous long‑term biology or human‑physiology studies that the ISS excels at.

Monitoring the effects of spaceflight on the human biology will also be a key part of the Haven-1's operations. Image Credit: Vast.com

All commercial stations face orbital debris risk, heavy regulatory and certification requirements, and the challenge of building a sustainable customer base beyond one‑off tourism. Vast knows this—its executives publicly frame Haven‑1 as a testbed with ambitions for much larger habitats (including artificial‑gravity concepts) in the longer term.

Expanding access to LEO facilities is one of Vast's main objectives. Image Credit: Vast.com

Voices from the Program

Vast’s leadership paints Haven‑1 as an inflection point. CEO Jed McCaleb called the project the

“first steps in Vast’s long‑term vision”

of expanded orbital habitats, and former NASA astronaut Drew Feustel—Vast’s mission commander and advisor—has spoken about applying ISS lessons to make living and working in orbit more intuitive and humane for future crews. SpaceX has publicly supported the launch partnership framing the mission as a commercial‑to‑commercial milestone.

Space Sci-Fi's Benefit

Beyond policy and programmatics, Haven‑1 signals a cultural shift: orbital habitats may soon be designed with human experience as a headline, not an afterthought. That matters for the stories space‑sci‑fi tells about life beyond Earth—future stations that look and feel different, prioritize comfort and community, and open LEO to a wider array of creators, scientists and storytellers.

If the ISS was a multinational laboratory of the Cold War’s détente era, Haven‑1 and its peers may be the first chapters of a commercial frontier where design, commerce and research collide in new, narrative‑rich ways.