U.S. companies are competing for seats on the Dragon spacecraft.
The company Vast Space, which develops a commercial space station, has signed an agreement with SpaceX for two commercial astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Vast Space is now awaiting approval from NASA, which had previously stated it would coordinate up to two commercial space missions annually. However, in practice, the agency has only permitted one mission per year so far.
2024-12-23 10:00:41https://naked-science.ru/community/1018292
As a result, Vast Space faces competition from another private company, Axiom Space, which also plans to build its own commercial orbital station. Axiom has already completed three private missions involving non-professional astronauts to the ISS and is preparing for a fourth mission called Ax-4, scheduled for launch in spring 2025. All of these missions utilized SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Previously, Vast Space ordered the launch of its single-module space station Haven-1 on Falcon 9 in 2025, along with a subsequent crewed mission aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.