Vast | Pakistan

The race to replace the ageing International Space Station (ISS) is heating up after US company Vast announced a mission to fly an astronaut to its planned Haven-1 station next year. If the repeatedly delayed Haven-1 is launched into orbit as scheduled in early 2027, it will become history’s first commercial space station, beating out several competitors. It would also mark a post-ISS era for humanity’s presence in space, as the West seeks independence from Russian space operations due to the war in Ukraine. After a quarter of a century of continuous habitation, the ISS is scheduled to be deorbited in 2030. On Tuesday, Vast became the first aerospace company to announce a crewed mission to its future station. “This is an important milestone in a new era in crewed spaceflight that is less expensive — and less reliant on Russia,” Vast CEO Max Haot told AFP in an interview. ‘Attractive prices’ French astronaut Arnaud Prost “is joining us on the crew of the inaugural mission of what will be the world’s first oper...