Haven-1: The World's First Commercial Space Station

Haven-1: The Commercial Space Station Built to Replace the ISS

For 25 years, the International Space Station has been humanity's only address in space. It was designed by governments, funded by governments, and run by governments. That chapter is closing. The ISS will retire by 2030, and NASA has made clear it won't build a replacement. Instead, it's shifting from operator to customer — buying services from private companies rather than running a facility of its own.

Vast Space is building the first one. Haven-1 is a single-module commercial space station currently in integration at Vast's headquarters in Long Beach, California, targeting launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 in early 2027. When it reaches orbit, it will be the first standalone commercial space station ever to fly. No private company has reached that point before. Vast is a few months from it.

What Haven-1 Is and How It Came Together

Haven-1 was designed for two-week crew missions carrying up to four people at a time. Inside, it offers 45 cubic metres of habitable volume, private crew quarters, a 1.1-metre domed window for Earth observation, and Starlink internet — the first time SpaceX's satellite network will run aboard a commercial space station.

Every component was designed, manufactured, and tested in-house in Long Beach. That decision kept timelines tight and quality control internal. The primary structure — the first space station flight article built in the United States in over two decades — was completed on January 10, 2026, in under six months from the start of manufacturing.

Before integration began, Vast launched Haven Demo in November 2025 — a 500 kg demonstration satellite that validated critical subsystems in orbit before being safely deorbited in February 2026. The test worked. Integration started. The station is real. Haven Lab, the onboard microgravity research facility, comes with ten standardized payload slots — the same format used on the ISS — making it straightforward for researchers to move experiments between vehicles. Redwire, Yuri, and Exobiosphere have already committed to flying science aboard the station's first missions.

The Funding and the Race to Orbit

On March 5, 2026, Vast announced $500 million in new investment — $300 million in Series A equity and $200 million in debt — bringing total investment in its Haven stations above $1 billion. The round was led by Balerion Space Ventures, with participation from the Qatar Investment Authority, Mitsui & Co., MUFG, Nikon, and IQT.

Former NASA Chief Technologist A.C. Charania, joining Vast's board as part of the deal, described the company's position clearly: Vast is the only commercial space station company to have designed, built, and flown its own spacecraft. The NASA CLD Phase 2 contract — worth up to $1.5 billion and designed to select one or two ISS replacements — is scheduled for award in 2026.

Vast's strategy is straightforward. Launch Haven-1 before any competitor reaches orbit. Fly crews.

 Build operational experience. Then arrive at NASA's selection table as the only company in the room that has already done it. Axiom Space, Starlab, and Orbital Reef are all competing for the same contract. None of them have flown their own spacecraft. Vast has. Drew Feustel, Vast's lead astronaut and former NASA crew member, put the moment plainly: if we stick to our plan, we will be the first standalone commercial LEO platform ever in space — and that's an amazing inflection point for human spaceflight.