SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 NASA has selected commercial space station company Vast to fly a private astronaut mission to the International Space Station in 2027.<\/p>\n
NASA announced Feb. 12 that it awarded a private astronaut mission (PAM) opportunity to Vast. That mission will go to the station no earlier than mid-2027, spending two weeks there.<\/p>\n
This is the sixth PAM that NASA has awarded. It is the first, though, to a company other than Axiom Space, which won the first five PAM opportunities. That company has flown four of those missions to the station, most recently Ax-4 in mid-2025. It won a fifth mission Jan. 30<\/a> for launch no earlier than January 2027.<\/p>\n \u201cVast is honored to have been selected by NASA for the sixth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station,\u201d Max Haot, chief executive of Vast, in a statement. \u201cLeveraging the remaining life of the International Space Station with science and research-led commercial crewed missions is a critical part of the transition to commercial space stations and fully unlocking the orbital economy.\u201d<\/p>\n Vast signaled its intent to compete for a PAM opportunity<\/a> two years ago. The company said flying a mission to the ISS would help it build experience for its future commercial space stations.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom our point of view, it will make us a better space station builder, a better partner of NASA, and it will help us practice a lot of the disciplines we are building\u201d for its future commercial stations, Haot said at a February 2024 conference.<\/p>\n NASA released a call for proposals in April 2025<\/a> for both the fifth and sixth PAMs. When it awarded Axiom the fifth PAM, the agency said it was finalizing the order for the other mission.<\/p>\n Vast will use a SpaceX Crew Dragon for its ISS mission under an earlier agreement between the companies. Vast is also partnered with SpaceX on Haven-1, the single-module commercial space station the company is developing for launch in the first quarter of 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n Neither Axiom nor Vast have disclosed the crews for their missions. Those crews will require approval by NASA and the other ISS partners.<\/p>\n