Vast Passes Critical Haven-1 Test Milestone
Haven-1 - Our Zero to One
Vast is making rapid progress in designing and engineering Haven-1, establishing ourselves as a space station company—a title we believe is only earned by successfully building a station and safely hosting crew in orbit.
Today, there are no operational commercial space station companies—only those working to achieve that milestone.
With the successful completion of the first crewed mission to Haven-1 on the updated timeline outlined below, Vast is on track to become the world’s first operational commercial space station company—well ahead of any other efforts.
We kicked off the development of Haven-1, the first commercial space station, as part of a strategic plan to rapidly iterate on space station manufacturing for three main reasons:
1. Win NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destination (CLD) Phase II Contract
Vast was founded in 2021. At the time, NASA had already launched the CLD program and awarded funding to other companies. Recognizing the need for a leapfrog strategy, we developed Haven-1 to set us apart. When NASA selects its partner(s) to carry forward its low-Earth orbit (LEO) legacy, we will be the only company operating a crewed space station—one we designed, built, tested, and verified for safety entirely in-house.
By then, we will have:
- Conducted crewed missions
- Established commercial partnerships for R&D
- Leveraged microgravity for economic and scientific benefits
- Developed and implemented crew training procedures
- Built capabilities for science, research, and all phases of flight operations
Every lesson learned from Haven-1 will be applied to our CLD Phase II proposal—Haven-2. No team will have more operational experience than Vast. No design will carry as much flight heritage. No company will be better positioned to deliver for NASA as fast—thanks to our work and over $1 billion investment in Haven-1 ahead of CLD Phase II.
2. Build a World-Class Team, Processes, and Facilities for Crewed Space Systems
At Vast, we believe that building a spacecraft under real-world budget and timeline constraints is the only way to develop the capabilities required for a successful space station. Others focus solely on design milestones, but what works on paper often breaks down when faced with manufacturing, supply chain, and testing realities.
For example, Vast initially selected stainless steel as the primary structural material for Haven-1. However, due to manufacturing challenges and delays, we launched a parallel effort in November 2023 to explore aluminum as an alternative. By March 2024, after hands-on manufacturing experience with both materials, our team completed a trade study and selected aluminum—driven by real-world constraints, not theoretical assumptions.
This philosophy applies to every critical subsystem, including avionics, control moment gyroscopes (CMGs), power systems, life support, and propulsion. We are actively maturing these technologies in-house and with trusted partners to ensure they are mission-ready for Haven-1 and future Vast stations. These are just a few reasons why no bidder will have more direct experience going into the CLD Phase II selection than Vast.
3. Ensure a Continuous U.S. and International Partner Presence in LEO
With the planned retirement of the ISS in 2030, we believe that it is imperative that the U.S. government have at least two years of overlap between its decommissioning and any successor station. To fill this critical gap, Vast is committed to developing safe, capable space stations at unprecedented speed and cost efficiency.
By leveraging Haven-1’s proven design, team, facilities, and subsystems, we are confident that, if selected by mid-2026, we can launch Haven-2’s first module and have it ready to host crew as early as the end of 2028.
Haven-1 Primary Structure Development
Vast rapidly built the Haven-1 primary structure qualification article—the first space station primary structure built in the U.S. in over two decades—to demonstrate its ability to withstand the launch and on-orbit environments throughout its operational lifetime.
This effort began with the Haven-1 Pathfinder article, manufactured between November 2023 and June 2024, which established the necessary tooling, team, and processes. The Pathfinder validated our ability to fabricate all critical geometries and interfaces required for Haven-1.
In July 2024, we began milling, inspecting, rolling, and welding the primary structure qualification article, completing it in six months.
Building on that success, we began manufacturing our flight-ready primary structure in January 2025. We remain on track to complete it by July 2025—a major milestone leading into the Haven-1 flight integration campaign.
Vast is producing space station primary structures in-house at an unprecedented pace—under six months per hull. This efficiency sets a new benchmark in space station manufacturing and is a key differentiator in our bid to succeed the ISS.
Vertically integrated production of Haven-1 is happening in the United States. This approach strengthens U.S. leadership in space and benefits our future international partners, ensuring an affordable, rapid build of the successor to the ISS, and preventing any gap in human spaceflight and scientific research in LEO.
Each major structural element underwent rigorous testing under simulated pressurization and launch loads:
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In parallel, we built a dedicated test stand replicating Haven-1’s launch configuration.
The test stand includes:
- Pressurization using dry nitrogen
- 36 hydraulic actuators simulating localized launch forces
- 64 strain gauge channels, plus pressure and temperature sensors inside and outside the vehicle
On January 15, the qualification article was shipped to our Mojave, CA facility and installed on its test stand, marking another milestone toward Haven-1’s first flight.
Haven-1 Primary Structure Qualification Proof Test
On Friday, January 31, our team began the test campaign for Haven-1’s primary structure qualification article after completing all on-test stand integration tasks, procedure checks, and rehearsals. This marks the first of many full-scale vehicle test campaigns for Vast.
We initiated the test with a decay leak check at 0.2 barD, which passed successfully.
Next, we performed the proof test, pressurizing the vehicle to 1.8 barD (26 psig). As expected:
- No visual changes were observed.
- The total test duration was 5 hours, with the leak rate remaining within specification for 10 minutes.
- All strain gauges stayed within acceptable ranges.
Following this, we maintained the vehicle at 3 psi (0.2 bar) for 48 hours without adding new nitrogen gas to measure the leak rate.
The leak rate was indiscernible, exceeding our 1.2 standard cubic centimeters per minute requirement.
This test procedure follows NASA-STD-5001, ensuring compliance with rigorous safety and performance standards.
Testing Results
We are proud to report that Haven-1 successfully passed its primary structure qualification proof test on the first attempt—a critical milestone in our journey.
This achievement demonstrates:
- The full proof qualification of a space station pressure vessel
- A space station structure designed, built, and tested entirely in-house by Vast
- A record timeline—completed in just 15 months from zero aluminum work to a proof tested structure
This is just the beginning of Vast’s vehicle operations. Our team is incredibly proud of this milestone and remains focused on what’s next.
Over the coming weeks, we will complete the full qualification test campaign, which involves:
- Applying simulated launch and on-orbit forces using hydraulic actuators
- Conducting structural load tests under pressure
Stay tuned for updates on our social media and a full blog post once the campaign is complete.
In the meantime, our core team remains focused on our critical path—building the Haven-1 flight primary structure.
Updated Haven-1 timeline
At Vast, transparency is a core value. We believe in sharing accurate, realistic timelines with our team, potential hires, partners, customers, and the public as soon as practical. Keeping everyone informed fosters trust and alignment across all stakeholders.
When we launched the Haven-1 program, we set a target of launching no earlier than August 2025, giving ourselves a two-year, three-month development window.
With the completion of our primary structure qualification test and a fully assembled team, we now have greater clarity on our build and launch schedule. As a result, we are updating our timeline:
This is an ambitious timeline, especially for a program of this scale within the crewed systems and space station industry.
We announced Haven-1 in May 2023 with no facilities and a team of fewer than 140 people. Today, we have over 700 team members, nearly 200,000 square feet of operational space, and 16 acres dedicated to manufacturing, integration, testing, and training.
If all goes as planned, we will have designed, built, and launched the world’s first commercial space station in three years—a pace never before achieved in human spaceflight.
We are proud of this growth and remain fully committed to our mission—pushing the boundaries of space station development and exploration for the U.S. and our international partners.
We invite you to follow our journey on X, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And if you have the skills and passion to help us achieve this mission, we encourage you to join us— we’re hiring another 200+ people this year.
ABOUT VAST
Founded in 2021 by Jed McCaleb, Vast is developing humanity’s next-generation space stations and pioneering the path to long-term living and thriving in space. Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station, is currently in development and is expected to launch NET May 2026. Vast is also developing Haven-2, the proposed successor to the International Space Station (ISS), designed to serve NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program as a micro-gravity laboratory in space. Vast’s long-term ambition is to create artificial gravity habitations that enable humans to live in space, reaffirming its commitment to ensuring a spacefaring future for all.
MEDIA CONTACT
Eva Behrend
Communications, Vast
press@vastspace.com