Vast Plans to Build Space Station with Artificial Gravity

Space startup Vast Space is hoping to blast past the competition to replace the sunsetting International Space Station with its own manned, low-orbit station. In the process, the company plans on testing “artificial gravity,” which could revolutionize humanity’s adaptability to space travel.

Why It Flies: Replacing the ISS is seen as the holy grail of space contracts and a once-in-a-generation opportunity. But as private companies significantly lower the cost of building orbital stations, there may be enough room for more than one to service NASA’s intergalactic exploration.

Behind the Mission: Vast has ambitions to put two stations in orbit by 2030.

• The first, Haven-1, will allegedly be up by the end of the year via two SpaceX missions. It’ll have a habitable volume of 45 cubic meters, a docking port, and a laboratory.
• It’ll also put four astronauts on board the station this year, who will stay for two weeks before flying back on a SpaceX module.
• The goal of Haven-1 is to show NASA it can get a station in orbit before the three companies the agency chose for its Commercial Destinations in Low Earth Orbit project — Northrop Grumman (which already pulled out), joint venture Starlab, and Blue Origin.
• NASA will crown which company it wants to pay to build the ISS’s replacement in the second half of 2026, so Vast could swoop in and take the funding — allowing for the creation and deployment of the much larger, modular Haven-2.

Final Countdown: Haven-1 will operate in orbit for three years. Before it’s decommissioned, it’ll rotate to mimic lunar gravity, allowing the company to test the effects of creating an artificial gravity aboard manmade stations. It’s a goal with far-reaching implications — in weightless conditions, humans are estimated only to be able to survive a year. With artificial gravity, it could be… well… a lifetime. 

But Vast CEO Max Haot is keeping expectations in check: “Building an outpost that artificially mimics gravity will take 10 to 20 years, as well as an amount of money that we don’t have now.” That’s why it needs that sweet NASA cash.