2 days ago

Vast Bets on Commercial Space Stations to Open a New Era of Orbital Research

Commercial space stations could fundamentally change how governments, companies and research institutions access low Earth orbit, making human spaceflight more frequent, repeatable and commercially sustainable, Tom Shelley, Vice President, Crew Partnerships, Vast Space, said at the Bengaluru Space Expo 2026.

Speaking at the panel “The Next Chapter of Space: A Conversation on Exploration, Science and Innovation,” Shelley outlined Vast’s plans for Haven-1, a commercial orbital station the company is working towards launching in 2027.

Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Vast has around 1,000 employees working on the programme. Shelley said the company is combining lessons from decades of government-led space-station operations with advances emerging from the new generation of privately developed crewed spacecraft.

The panel was moderated by Anand Rajagopalan, Executive Vice President, TakeMe2Space, and featured NASA astronaut Captain Sunita Williams and Indian astronaut Group Captain Angad Pratap.

Building on Mir and the ISS

Shelley said Vast’s approach draws on the accumulated experience of the Mir and International Space Station (ISS) programmes, while incorporating the speed and commercial focus demonstrated by newer private spacecraft programmes.

“We’re building on the foundations of what has come before,” Shelley said, referring to the operational knowledge gained through Mir, the ISS and the development of privately operated crewed spacecraft.

The objective is to build orbital infrastructure more efficiently while retaining the safety and reliability standards required for human spaceflight.

The ISS has demonstrated the scientific and operational value of maintaining a continuous human presence in orbit. However, it has also required decades of development, substantial public investment and coordination among multiple governments.

Commercial stations could offer a different model: a continuously available orbital platform that governments, companies and scientific institutions can use without having to develop an entire human-spaceflight programme themselves.

That could potentially lower the barrier to entry for countries and organisations that want access to human spaceflight but do not possess independent crewed spacecraft or orbital infrastructure.

A three-part orbital ecosystem

Shelley said a commercial space station should not be viewed simply as a single spacecraft.

Its viability depends on three interconnected components: the station itself, transportation and cargo systems, and re-entry infrastructure.

The station would provide a continuously operating orbital laboratory and living environment. Crew transportation would move astronauts to and from orbit, while cargo systems would deliver supplies, equipment and experimental material.

Equally important would be the ability to return research results, manufactured products and other materials to Earth.

Vast is developing the station while working with SpaceX on crew and cargo transportation. The company is also examining future applications for re-entry technology and how those capabilities could eventually become part of its broader orbital architecture.

“The primary goal is not just getting the vehicle as part of the space-station stack,” Shelley said, pointing to the wider transportation and logistics infrastructure required to establish a sustainable commercial presence in orbit.

Such an ecosystem could also allow countries without their own crewed spacecraft to participate in human-spaceflight activities through commercial transportation and station services.

Biotechnology emerges as a major opportunity

Shelley identified biotechnology and pharmaceutical research as among the most promising commercial applications for orbital infrastructure.

Experiments conducted aboard the ISS have included stem-cell research, protein-crystal growth, drug development and studies of long-duration human health.

Microgravity provides an environment in which certain biological and physical processes behave differently from those on Earth, potentially revealing effects and mechanisms that are difficult to reproduce under terrestrial conditions.

“There’s a huge amount of work that has been done that is now being applied in different ways,” Shelley said, referring to research involving stem cells, protein-crystal growth and pharmaceutical development.

The commercial opportunity, he said, lies in transforming such research from occasional government-supported experiments into a regular industrial activity.

If companies can obtain predictable access to orbit, they could conduct repeated experiments, refine manufacturing processes and develop products based on microgravity research.

The potential applications extend beyond pharmaceuticals to materials science, advanced manufacturing and other technologies where the absence of gravity could provide unique production or research conditions.

Commercial infrastructure could support future exploration

Shelley positioned commercial space stations as complementary to government-led exploration rather than as an alternative to it.

A sustainable market in low Earth orbit could generate revenue, operational experience and infrastructure that could ultimately support more ambitious missions.

Regular crew transportation, cargo delivery, resupply and re-entry services would create capabilities that could later become useful for lunar and deep-space missions.

Under this model, commercial companies would focus on making access to low Earth orbit increasingly routine, while governments and international partnerships could concentrate on more distant and strategically ambitious destinations.

That represents a significant shift from the traditional model of human spaceflight, in which national space agencies developed and operated most of the infrastructure required for a mission.

Haven-1 is being developed at a time when the global space sector is preparing for the eventual transition away from the ISS towards a new generation of commercial and government orbital platforms.

Shelley said the next generation of stations will have to combine technologies proven through decades of human spaceflight with new commercial operating models.

The fundamental challenge will be maintaining the safety and reliability standards expected of human spaceflight while reducing costs and increasing the frequency of missions.

Commercial operators also need to create an ecosystem in which customers can plan research and manufacturing activities around predictable access to orbit.

For Vast, Haven-1 is therefore more than an individual space-station project.

It represents an early step towards an orbital economy built around transportation, research, manufacturing, resupply and the regular movement of people and products between Earth and space.

If that model succeeds, low Earth orbit could gradually evolve from an environment accessible primarily through national space programmes into a commercial infrastructure serving a much wider range of governments, companies, researchers and eventually private individuals.

The larger ambition is not simply to build another space station. It is to make living and working in orbit a repeatable commercial activity—creating the infrastructure that could ultimately support humanity’s next steps towards the Moon and beyond.

By Subramanya Joshi