OrbitalHub

Vast, the California-based startup developing what it calls the world’s first commercial space station, announced significant progress in March and April 2026 as Haven-1 moves toward its target launch in the first quarter of 2027. The company secured $500 million in Series C funding in March 2026, led by the Qatar Investment Authority with participation from Mitsui, MUFG, and Balerion Space Ventures.

The funding will accelerate production of the Haven-1 station and support development of the follow-on Haven-2 design. Vast has also expanded manufacturing facilities in Long Beach, California, where the station modules are being assembled. The company’s workforce has grown to over 400 employees, up from approximately 200 in early 2025.

Haven-1 entered the full integration phase in January 2026, with the spacecraft’s major subsystems being assembled and tested together for the first time. Life support systems, critical for sustaining crew members, have undergone extended testing including模拟 long-duration missions. The station’s interior has been outfitted with cargo storage systems, crew accommodations, and research equipment.

The Haven Demo mission, which tested key technologies in orbit, completed a successful deorbit in February 2026 after 49 experiments. The test validated systems including the station’s attitude control, thermal management, and communications infrastructure. Data from the mission has informed final modifications to the Haven-1 design.

Vast received a Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) award from NASA in February 2026, designating the company to conduct a commercial crewed mission to Haven-1 in late 2026 or 2027. This contract represents one of the first awards under NASA’s post-ISS transition strategy and validates the company’s technical approach.

The station design calls for a single large module approximately 12 meters in length, providing volume comparable to the International Space Station’s node modules. The station will initially accommodate up to four crew members, with expansion potential through additional modules. Each crew member will have a dedicated sleep station and access to galley facilities for food preparation.

Research facilities on Haven-1 will support experiments in fluid physics, materials science, and biological studies. The station’s location at approximately 500 kilometers altitude, slightly lower than the ISS, provides a stable microgravity environment while minimizing exposure to the South Atlantic Anomaly where Earth’s radiation belts dip closest to the planet’s surface.

Vast faces competition from Axiom Space, which is developing its own commercial station with the backing of NASA. Axiom raised $350 million in February 2026 and is targeting 2028 for initial station elements. The two companies represent different approaches: Vast designed its station from the ground up for commercial operations, while Axiom is building on heritage from its ISS visiting mission experience.

The commercial station market is emerging in response to the planned retirement of the ISS around 2030. NASA has indicated it will purchase services from private stations as a customer rather than an operator, fundamentally changing the agency’s role in human spaceflight. This transition presents both opportunities for private companies and risks regarding the continuity of human presence in low Earth orbit.

The choice of orbital altitude for a space station involves trade-offs between accessibility, decay rate, and radiation exposure. At 500 kilometers, Haven-1 experiences atmospheric drag that requires periodic reboosting to maintain altitude. The ISS orbits at approximately 420 kilometers for similar reasons, balancing the propellant cost of station-keeping against the difficulty of reaching higher orbits.

The orbital decay rate depends on atmospheric density, which varies with solar activity. During periods of high solar output, Earth’s upper atmosphere expands, increasing drag and accelerating orbital decay. Station operators must monitor solar activity and plan reboost maneuvers accordingly.

The station’s orbital plane also determines lighting conditions for Earth observation and solar power generation. Most stations operate in inclinations that provide coverage of most of Earth’s surface while allowing launch and landing from mid-latitude facilities. The specific inclination is chosen to balance these factors against launch site limitations.

Blue Origin dixit:

“New Shepard flew again for the eighth time on April 29, 2018, from Blue Origin’s West Texas Launch Site. Known as Mission 8 (M8), the mission featured a reflight of the vehicle flown on Mission 7. The Crew Capsule reached an apogee of 351,000 feet (66 miles, 107 kilometers) – the altitude we’ve been targeting for operations.

For the second time, Blue Origin’s test dummy Mannequin Skywalker flew to space conducting astronaut telemetry and science studies. The flight also carried research payloads for NASA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and commercial customers.”

Video Credit: Blue Origin

Wikipedia dixit:

“The BFR, which is variously said to stand for either Big Falcon Rocket or Big F@#$%^& Rocket, announced in September 2017, is SpaceX’s privately-funded launch vehicle, spacecraft and space and ground infrastructure system of spaceflight technology—including reusable launch vehicles and spacecraft. The system includes Earth infrastructure for rapid launch and relaunch; low Earth orbit, and zero-gravity propellant transfer technology. The new vehicle, while much smaller than an earlier version of SpaceX composite material vehicle design, is much larger than the existing SpaceX operational vehicles which it is intended to replace.

The new launch vehicle is planned to replace both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft, in the operational SpaceX fleet in the early 2020s, initially aiming at the Earth-orbit market, but explicitly adding substantial capability to the spacecraft vehicles to support long-duration spaceflight in the cislunar and Mars mission environment as well. SpaceX intends this approach to bring significant cost savings which will help the company justify the development expense of designing and building the new launch vehicle design. BFR is a 9 meters (30 ft)-diameter launch vehicle.

An earlier larger design for the first non-Falcon launch vehicle from SpaceX was known as the ITS launch vehicle in 2016–2017. The design for all of the ITS vehicles were 12 meters (39 ft) diameter. While the earlier SpaceX designs had been aimed at Mars transit and other interplanetary uses, SpaceX pivoted in 2017 to a plan that would replace all SpaceX launch-service-provider capacity—Earth orbit, the Lunar-orbit region, and interplanetary space transport—with a single 9 m (30 ft)-diameter class of launch vehicles and spacecraft.

Development work began on the Raptor rocket engines to be used for both stages of the BFR launch vehicle in 2012, and engine testing began in 2016. New rocket engine designs are typically considered one of the longest of the development subprocesses for new launch vehicles and spacecraft. Tooling for the main tanks has been ordered and a facility to build the vehicles is under construction; construction will start on the first ship in 2Q2018. The company publicly stated an aspirational goal for initial Mars-bound cargo flights of BFR launching as early as 2022, followed by the first BFR flight with passengers one synodic period later, in 2024.”

Video credit: SpaceX

Credits: XCOR Aerospace

XCOR completed the first test fire of the rocket engine that will power the Lynx suborbital launch vehicle. The test was performed on Monday, December 15, 2008, at XCOR’s rocket test facility located at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

The rocket engine is designated as 5K18. The engine is powered by liquid oxygen and kerosene and can produce up to 2900 lbf of thrust.

The 5K18 is the eleventh in a series of rocket engines that XCOR has designed and fired during its nine years of existence.

“Today’s successful hot fire marks an important step forward in building the Lynx,” said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. “The 5K18 builds on our previous experience in designing and building reliable, durable and fully reusable rocket engines from 15 lbf thrust up to 7500 lbf, that will make it possible to provide affordable access to space.”

The Lynx will use four 5K18 engines and it will be able to perform suborbital flights. Space tourists can buy tickets to fly on the Lynx for $95,000 through RocketShip Tours. The full press release is available on the XCOR Aerospace web site.