ISS begins continuous human presence
2000-11ISS partners
Humans have lived aboard the ISS without a break since November 2000 — the legacy these stations must carry on.
All fields
Commercial Space Stations
Who will replace the ISS in orbit?
Live Updated 2028
Distance to goal
The single most intuitive view — current position against the end goal, on a log scale.
Development stage
Metric detailnow
3
Vast
goal
Stage 5 (crewed ops)
~0.2 orders of magnitude to go
Headline indicators
Who leads
Standings by actor, within this field only.
Milestone timeline
Clear-cut events: crossed or not crossed.
5 achieved 0 in progress 1 locked
NASA funds commercial station designs
2021-12NASA (CLD)
NASA's Commercial LEO Destinations program funded Orbital Reef, Starlab and a Northrop concept to seed ISS successors.
China completes the Tiangong station
2022-11China
China finished its three-module Tiangong station — a crewed government station, and a competitive backdrop for commercial LEO.
Vast completes Haven-1 qualification testing
2025-11Vast
Vast finished structural qualification of Haven-1 and flew a pathfinder — clearing the path to launch.
Axiom closes oversubscribed $525M round
2026-06Axiom Space
Axiom closed $525M+ (Feb $350M led by Type One Ventures & QIA, plus a $175M June extension joined by MUFG) to accelerate Axiom Station, spacesuits and human spaceflight — the largest station-sector raise amid NASA's CLD strategy rework.
ISS retires; commercial stations take over LEO
~ 2030+—
NASA plans to deorbit the ISS around 2030 (a 2-year extension is under debate), handing low Earth orbit to commercial stations — if they are ready in time.
Related news & analysis
Analysis 2026-01-29
Is there an investable bet in space stations? Most station contenders are private — Vast is self-funded, Axiom and Blue Origin unlisted — leaving Voyager Technologies (NYSE: VOYG) as the main public play. Our read on a capital-hungry race with one listed runner. (Our opinion, not investment advice.) Explainer 2026-01-22
Reading station specs: volume vs crew Station spec sheets range from Vast's 45 m³ Haven-1 to Blue Origin's 830 m³ Orbital Reef. Almost all of these are design figures, not flown hardware — here is how to read them against the ISS's ~916 m³. Explainer 2026-01-15
The ISS retirement is a race NASA plans to deorbit the ISS around 2030, and a field of private stations is racing to be ready before the lights go out in low Earth orbit. We track each contender's development stage — not their press releases. i
Every figure links to a primary source. We publish no invented scores. Tracker numbers are neutral; analysis is labelled separately.