SpaceX has signed a deal to fly two more private astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS) using its Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule.
The flights were booked by California company Vast Space, which is developing a private space station called Haven-1 that could reach orbit as soon as next year, also atop a Falcon 9.
"Enabling payload and crewed missions to the ISS is a key part of Vast’s strategy, allowing us to further our collaboration with NASA and global space agencies," Vast Space CEO Max Haot said in a statement.
"These missions not only strengthen our expertise in human spaceflight operations and collaboration with NASA, but also position Vast as a leading contender to deliver the next-generation successor to the ISS, advancing the future of human space exploration," Haot added.
NASA plans to select and nurture that successor via its Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destination program. Vast has thrown its hat in the ring with its Haven-2 design, a larger, more advanced version of the Haven-1 pathfinder. Haven-2's first module could be up and running in low Earth orbit by 2028, two years before the ISS' envisioned retirement, according to the company.
Related: Vast Space unveils Haven-2, a private space station to follow the ISS after its fiery end (video)
Vast's newly booked flights to the ISS would be private astronaut missions (PAMs), short-duration jaunts that must be approved by NASA.
So far, NASA has greenlit a total of four PAM flights, all of them proposed by Houston-based company Axiom Space, with SpaceX as the hardware partner. Axiom has flown three of them already and plans to launch the fourth, called Ax-4, this coming spring.
NASA has not yet approved Vast's planned PAM flights, but SpaceX said it'll be ready to send them on their way when the time comes.
"I am excited to work with Vast as they build more opportunities and destinations for more people to travel amongst the stars," SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said in the same statement.
