In 2030, it is planned that the International Space Station (ISS) will be retired, and after that, one or more private space stations are expected to take over the work currently being carried out on the ISS.
Today, the American space company Vast presented the Haven-1 space station, which they plan to build with the help of SpaceX. Haven-1 is a relatively small space station that Vast hopes to have in orbit around the Earth as early as 2025. The idea is to launch it into space with the help of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Up to four astronauts will then be able to be on Haven-1 at the same time, and they will be transported to and from the space station with SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
If Vast manages to get Haven-1 into space in 2025, they will likely be ahead of Orbital Reef, the space station that is being built by Blue Origin in collaboration with, among others, Boeing and Sierra Space, which is planned to be launched sometime in the second half of the decade. Voyager Space, Lockheed Martin, and Nanoracks aim to have their Starlab space station in space by 2027.
Northrop Grumman, Dynetics, and Airbus also plan to develop space stations, but it is unclear what the timeline looks like for these.
Above is an illustration of Vast’s Haven-1 space station with a docked SpaceX Crew Dragon and a clip where you can take a closer look at Haven-1.
