“The International Space Station is dead; long live the International Space Station” may well be what headlines read five years from now after the landmark space station is decommissioned and de-orbited.

As such several American companies are stepping up to offer a replacement to the space station. If left alone, with no replacement for the space station on the horizon, China would operate the only space station in orbit, posing risks to national security.

One American company, Vast, attended the 40th annual space Symposium in Colorado Springs with their ambition in tow, literally. This offered a vision into what life onboard new commercial space stations might look like, though with the constraints of gravity.

The Haven-1 Experience, set up on the north side of the exhibition hall, offered attendees a unique opportunity to see how astronauts might live and work in a new generation of commercial space stations. The 1-to-1 scale mockup is essentially what Vast will load on to a rocket and launch into space some time next year, thereby cementing them as the sole existing “space station company.”

“Imagine you’re declaring you’re going to be a video streaming or production company: Until you have your first product, you’re not that,” CEO Max Haot said. “So the differentiator is that we will be an actual space station company in May 2026 while none of our competitors will be.”

“Having done it is the essence of being a space station company.”

The Haven-1 module will give astronauts 45 cubic meters of habitable volume and has space for sleep quarters, science experiment stations and a crew common area. There are four bunks for crew members and a large, cylindrical common area with lighting, foot- and handholds and other amenities. Astronauts will live and work on Haven-1 for about two weeks, according to the company.

But, as the name may give away, Haven-1 is simply step one. Haven-2 is a larger module that Vast wants to use as a more permanent replacement for the space station. Multiple Haven-2 modules can dock together, making a much larger living and working space than Haven-1.

By investing resources in Haven-1, Vast has found and ironed out any complications in the production and engineering of the world’s first commercial space station.

“Haven-1 represents the feasibility of building and operating a commercial station, taking a ‘minimum viable product’ approach,” Eva Behrend, Vast’s vice president of communications said. “By building 90% of the station in-house, we are able to focus on speed and cost efficiency. Haven-1 then lays the foundation for future advancements, enabling us to iterate, innovate, and expand from it as a starting point.”

Privately funding Haven-1 is all part of Vast’s strategy, Haot said.

“Because we are doing it so quickly and in house and investing a billion dollars in doing so, by the time we build Haven-2, all of our technology is already matured and tested in space.”

This brings down the cost of a follow-on space station, making Vast an even more attractive partner to NASA over other potential partners.

Haven-1 is set to be in orbit no earlier than May 2026, ahead of Blue Origin and Axiom Space; they probably will follow in 2027 and 2028, respectively.

One of the capabilities that makes the space station such a unique asset is the onboard science and research facilities. While some companies are working with NASA to bring down critical projects, just simply getting a pressurized cylinder up to space isn’t going to fill the gap. Fortunately, Vast — and other companies — has designed its modules to have space for science and research stations.

“Haven-1 Lab, scheduled to be the world’s first microgravity research, development, and manufacturing platform on a commercial space station,” Behrend said. “Payloads will be operated by the astronaut crew on Haven-1, as well as commanded and monitored by ground operators via Starlink laser links, providing Gigabit/s speed, low latency connectivity.”

Vast will rely on SpaceX Dragon capsules for transport to and from the station, including offloading cargo.

And their launch is coming far sooner than one might expect.

“So if you believe we will launch in May next year, we will have done it from scratch in three years,” Haot said. “In Haven-2, we believe we can build the first module in two and a half. Just because we’ve done it already.