Vast Space throws down the gauntlet: replace the Iss with an artificial gravity station (and Apple design)

A tactic that becomes a strategy: with an initial funding of $415 million, in 2021 Nasa inaugurated the Cld programme, or 'Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations', to support the development of private stations in low orbit and maintain a stable human presence in space. Allocated to three different projects, after Northrop Grumman gave up developing one of them, Nasa concentrated its funds on the two survivors: Starlab, by Voyager Space and Nanoracks, and Orbital Reef, by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

Vast Space aims to outdo them all and present itself to NASA, which will have to choose which project to carry out in the second half of 2026, as the only interlocutor with a concrete precedent. It is with Haven 2 that we hope to win,' Haot urges. 'We guarantee that the first module will be ready by 2028, so that NASA will have two years to test it while the Iss is still operational. In this way, the United States, but also Italy, will not have to worry about being without a space station for a while after the retirement of the Iss. Moreover, in terms of power, volume, capacity, and windows, Haven 2 will be a more efficient station than any other, including the Chinese one already in orbit, the Tiangong, and the one planned by the Russian Federation'.

A theme, the even geopolitical relevance of the orbital garrison, which could make all the difference when deciding who to finance and how much. And an underlining that, who knows whether unintentionally on Haot's part, evokes the other existing commercial station project: that of Texas-based Axiom Space, which predates Nasa's Cld programme and is the most advanced of them all, thanks in part to the collaboration of the specialist Thales Alenia Space Italia. But on whose sustainability, Axiom's financial problems, made public by a scoop in 'Forbes', cast a worrying shadow.

This is why Vast Space, which now employs 610 people and hires ten a week, spares no detail: it promises that when completed in 2032, Haven-2 will consist of nine modules, characterised by unprecedented refinement: 'we have collaborated with great designers, such as Peter Russell-Clarke, for more than twenty years at Apple. Haven-2 will also have wooden elements. And this is not because we conceive it as a space hotel, but to improve liveability on board and, consequently, productivity. He who is better off, works better'.

Words that allude to a market, de facto, that does not exist today: 'Up to now, all space stations have been built by governments and at exorbitant prices: our project will allow costs to be cut by about five times or perhaps more,' Haot replies: if we succeed in securing Nasa as an anchor customer, if we guarantee the interests of all the nations in the Iss programme, but also attract countries that have been excluded from the market up to now, if, in short, we know how to create an efficient and low-cost company, our dreams will be within reach'.Much will depend on the launch of Haven-1. Certainly, with a SpaceX Falcon 9 and 'perhaps with an Italian commander,' Haot winks. 'Anything is possible'.