SpaceX to launch Vast’s first space station module as well as two manned missions to it
Vast Haven-1 station inside Falcon-9 fairing
SpaceX and the private space station company Vast today revealed a deal whereby SpaceX will use its Falcon 9 rocket to launch VAST’s first space station module, dubbed Vast Haven-1, followed soon thereafter by two manned missions using SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and lasting up to 30 days.
The announcements claim that first launch will occur by August 2025, which will make it the first privately-owned manned space station to reach orbit, well ahead of the plans by the three space station companies that NASA has issued contracts (by teams led by Northrop Grumman, Sierra Space, and Nanoracks). The only other private station hoping to beat this date, Axiom, won’t be flying independent, but will be attaching its first module to ISS in 2024.
In addition, Vast says that this module will be the incorporated into its proposed larger spinning-wheel station.
Vast is owned and financed by billionaire Jed McCaleb, who doesn’t need NASA seed money for development. In fact, it appears he and SpaceX want to remain as independent of the government as possible, considering the high fees NASA is charging to dock and stay at ISS as well as the stringent research rules it is demanding from private astronauts. This approach also appears to be the same one that Jared Isaacman is taking with his series of private missions on Dragon and Starship.
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Vast Haven-1 station inside Falcon-9 fairing
SpaceX and the private space station company Vast today revealed a deal whereby SpaceX will use its Falcon 9 rocket to launch VAST’s first space station module, dubbed Vast Haven-1, followed soon thereafter by two manned missions using SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and lasting up to 30 days.
The announcements claim that first launch will occur by August 2025, which will make it the first privately-owned manned space station to reach orbit, well ahead of the plans by the three space station companies that NASA has issued contracts (by teams led by Northrop Grumman, Sierra Space, and Nanoracks). The only other private station hoping to beat this date, Axiom, won’t be flying independent, but will be attaching its first module to ISS in 2024.
In addition, Vast says that this module will be the incorporated into its proposed larger spinning-wheel station.
Vast is owned and financed by billionaire Jed McCaleb, who doesn’t need NASA seed money for development. In fact, it appears he and SpaceX want to remain as independent of the government as possible, considering the high fees NASA is charging to dock and stay at ISS as well as the stringent research rules it is demanding from private astronauts. This approach also appears to be the same one that Jared Isaacman is taking with his series of private missions on Dragon and Starship.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I like the schedule, although as with all development projects, it is probably a bit optimistic. If they end up being the first independent commercial space station, they should get many eager companies, countries, and civilians interested in renting time aboard.
Robert wrote: “ … considering the high fees NASA is charging to dock and stay at ISS as well as the stringent research rules it is demanding from private astronauts.”
The high fees that NASA charges is a good starting point for the amount that these commercial space stations can charge NASA for using their space stations.
The downside is that the competition will quickly result in lowered price tags for space station occupancies. Well, a downside for sticking it to NASA, which looks greedy, right now. Lower prices is an upside for everyone else.
NASA would undoubtedly stick to many of its ISS rules when renting commercial stations, but the company owning the station can set its own, more relaxed rules for its customers. Unlike NASA’s requirement, some customers may not desire to release their experimental results within five years and may prefer to keep their information proprietary.
“its proposed larger spinning-wheel station.”
It isn’t a wheel
https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/21/vast-acquires-launcher-in-quest-to-build-artificial-gravity-space-stations/
There are ring station concepts being looked at:
https://www.universetoday.com/149551/gateway-foundation-gives-a-detailed-update-on-its-voyager-station-concept/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-XlWP4Q4Ds
https://newatlas.com/space/space-habitat-ring-plan/
Art
https://nick-stevens.com/category/spacecraft/spacecraft-concepts/page/4/
ISS is by its very nature a research laboratory. That imposes a lot of costs that are not going to exist for a tourist hotel. You need a lot more power. You need places to put things outside. You need to constrain activities that would interfere with experiments. One needs to store a ton of stuff. One needs extra life support for lab animals. All sorts of interfaces to station resources are needed. Some experiments need more space to isolate them from interference. The list goes on and on. Even on earth, a hospital or lab costs a lot more to build than a house or even a hotel.
Of course, government ownership also increases costs. Add multiple national governments and it gets worse. However, even in the absence of these influences, it would be horribly expensive duplicate ISS’s full capabilities. However, it may be cheaper than one would think to build a private station that matches the ISS’s crew accommodations and add a few luxuries.
Cloudy wrote: “However, even in the absence of these influences, it would be horribly expensive duplicate ISS’s full capabilities.”
Wouldn’t this be an advantage of having multiple smaller space stations? Each could specialize in certain areas, so the problems of integrating a huge number of items of equipment is less, with a lower cost that is associated with this simplification.
Commercial ownership and free market competition would encourage the search for additional efficiencies, a search in which governments only think is an unnecessary expense.