12 February 2026 year NASA announced, which made it possible to carry out a private astronaut mission (PAM) commercial space station development company Vast. The mission will go to the International Space Station (ISS) not before the middle 2027 year and will spend two weeks there.
For reference: private astronaut mission (English. Private Astronaut Mission) is a commercially organized and financed mission to the ISS, which is conducted by a private company, not a government space agency. NASA began authorizing such missions with 2019 year as part of the strategy for the development of the commercial economy in low Earth orbit.
This is the sixth PAM, which was awarded by NASA. The first five opportunities were won by Axiom Space. Vast CEO Max Haot said, that using the remainder of the ISS's service life for commercial manned research missions is a critical part of the transition to commercial space stations and the full development of the orbital economy. According to the company, a flight to the ISS will help her gain experience for future commercial space stations.
For reference: Axiom Space is an American private company, founded in 2016 year, which is developing the world's first commercial space station (Axiom Station), organizes private manned missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and creates a new generation of spacesuits. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, and the company was founded by former heads of the ISS program from NASA.
According to the previous agreement, Vast will use the Crew Dragon reusable manned spacecraft of the new generation (SpaceX) for its mission to the ISS.
Source: https://spacenews.com