The European Space Agency, on Behalf of the Czech Republic, Signs Agreement with Vast for a Private Astronaut Mission to the International Space Station in Partnership with NASA

LONG BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 8, 2026--

Vast, the company developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure, is partnering with the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of the Czech Republic, to send an astronaut to the International Space Station. This agreement builds on the memorandum of understanding that Vast, and the Czech Republic signed in 2024.

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Subject to Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP) review and approval, Aleš Svoboda, one of the 12 members of the astronaut reserve selected by ESA in November 2022, will serve as the mission pilot. The MCOP's decisions are reached through a consensus among representatives from all five space station partners: NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. Pending approval, Aleš Svoboda will become the first Czech astronaut to visit the International Space Station. Svoboda is planned to join ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet who is the named Commander for the mission.

“This mission is an important milestone for the Czech Republic and a strategic investment into our future technological capabilities, science, industry, and education. Space technologies already influence many sectors with high added value, from telecommunications and cybersecurity to manufacturing. Through this mission, we want to strengthen the Czech Republic’s industrial and technological base, support the involvement of Czech companies and research institutions in top international projects, and inspire a new generation of engineers, scientists, and innovators,” said Karel Havlíček, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.

The mission is planned for 2027, with transportation provided by SpaceX on a Dragon spacecraft launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

“This mission confirms that the Czech Republic has the expertise, talent, and determination to contribute to the most advanced international projects of our time. The participation of a Czech pilot and ESA reserve astronaut reflects the high level of Czech readiness and professional excellence. The Czech Republic has long invested in innovation, technology, and human potential, and this mission demonstrates that Czech capabilities can succeed at the highest level of space exploration and technological progress. We see this not only as an investment in one mission, but in the future of our country,” said Jaromír Zůna, Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic.

“This agreement demonstrates how ESA is enabling its Member States to participate in human spaceflight through a new generation of commercial partnerships,” said Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s Director General. “We thank NASA for its effort in facilitating this commercial activity. It supports the Czech Republic’s ambitions while reinforcing Europe’s broader objectives in exploration, innovation, and long-term capability development.”

“For the third time, ESA is supporting its Member States with exploration through commercial access to space,” said Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s Director for Human and Robotic Exploration. “ESA is working closely with the Czech Republic to provide them with our decades of expertise in the field of human spaceflight. This new mission will help drive forward technological advancements, supporting the development of technological and scientific expertise in the country.”

“We are proud to expand our partnership with the Czech Republic and support this mission to the International Space Station implemented together with the European Space Agency,” said Max Haot, CEO of Vast. “The Czech Republic has demonstrated a strong commitment to advancing its role in the global space economy, and we look forward to working closely with ESA, NASA, and the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade on this historic mission.”

“This mission demonstrates the strong and long-term partnership between the Czech Republic and the European Space Agency. Thanks to ESA’s expertise and international cooperation framework, Czech research institutions, universities, and companies will gain valuable experience and new opportunities to participate in advanced space activities. The mission is also an important step in strengthening the Czech Republic’s position within the European space ecosystem,” said Václav Kobera, Director of the New Technologies and Czech Space Agency at the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade and Head of Delegation of the Czech Republic to ESA.

This initiative is an important step forward for the Czech Republic’s engagement in the new era of commercial space exploration. It demonstrates the framework for collaboration across government, academia, and industry. With the support and expertise of ESA, the Czech Republic will benefit from Vast’s commercial spaceflight initiatives.

In early June, Vast announced its commitment to establish its European headquarters in Paris, France. These collective milestones underscore Vast’s commitment to fostering global access to microgravity research, and creating new pathways for emerging space leadership to participate in economic and scientific development in low-Earth orbit and beyond.

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 23 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia are Associate Members.

ESA has established formal cooperation with three Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions. Learn more at www.esa.int.

About Czech Space Journey

Czech Space Journey is a national strategic initiative of the Czech Republic focused on advancing science, education, innovation, space activities, and international cooperation. Officially launched in 2024, the initiative supports the mission of Czech ESA reserve astronaut Aleš Svoboda to the International Space Station. The programme also includes educational and outreach activities aimed at inspiring young people to pursue careers in science, technology, and engineering.

The initiative connects government institutions, universities, research organisations, planetariums, science centres, and industry partners with the goal of strengthening the Czech Republic’s involvement in advanced international space programmes and technological development.

The Czech Republic has been a Member State of ESA since 2008 and today has a rapidly growing space sector spanning satellite technologies, robotics, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity or scientific research. In 2024, the Czech Republic and Vast signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore cooperation on future human spaceflight missions and commercial space station opportunities.

About Vast

Vast is developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach. Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches in 2027, followed by additional Haven modules. Additionally, the company recently announced Vast Satellite, a high-power satellite product line leveraging its space station components and the heritage of Haven Demo.

Headquartered in Long Beach, California, and with more than 1,000 employees and over a billion dollars in private capital, Vast has built the facilities required to manufacture and operate America’s next space station. The company plans to develop future habitats and systems for the Moon and Mars, dedicated space stations for government partners, and other crewed systems that will unlock the expanding long-term space economy.

ESA Reserve Astronaut Aleš Svoboda, photo credit: Michaela Szkanderova.

MADRID (AP) — Pope Leo XIV met Monday with six survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Madrid and vowed to consider their suggestions for how the Catholic Church can improve its response to the crisis, the Vatican said.

The meeting, which followed in the tradition of popes meeting with abuse survivors during their foreign trips, lasted about an hour and took place at the Vatican Embassy in Madrid, the Vatican said in a statement.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

MADRID (AP) — Pope Leo XIV told Spain's Catholic hierarchy on Monday to provide reparations to survivors of clergy sexual abuse and deal with the crisis transparently, ahead of an expected meeting with survivors during his weeklong visit to the country.

Leo told Spanish bishops the entire church community should have an "ever more determined commitment to prevention and a culture of care.” The Spanish hierarchy had largely dismissed the scale of abuse in their church for decades until a newspaper began documenting a legacy of abuse and cover-up.

“Faced with this scourge, the ecclesial community is called to respond with listening, truth, justice reparation," Leo said. “Every wounded person must be able to find sincere listening, welcome, protection and real paths to healing.”

Amid public outrage over the abuse crisis, Spain launched a reparations system earlier this year for clerical abuse cases too old to be prosecuted that requires the participation of the Catholic Church and the Spanish government.

Other countries and churches have set up reparations mechanisms to compensate survivors and provide therapy, but the Spanish one is unusual in that it gives the government a strong role in the process and the final say in payouts.

The system, which is not legally binding, has drawn praise and some skepticism from advocacy groups and survivors. It gives people a year to apply.

Ahead of the expected meeting with Leo, several groups representing survivors said they were left in the dark about the encounter, and held a small protest outside the Vatican's embassy in Madrid.

“Our associations are pleased that a group of victims from the reparation plan can be heard by the pope, but they do not represent all the victims, and deep down they are being used by the church, by the bishops conference, to clean up the image of a Spanish church that has never been able to live up to its victims," said Juan Cuatrecasas, a spokesperson for the Robbed Childhood association.

Across the world, clergy sexual abuse and cover-up scandals have rocked Catholic dioceses, damaging the church’s reputation more than three decades after the crisis first erupted publicly in the West.

Leo also reaffirmed the right of the Catholic Church to maintain secrecy involving the sacrament of confession, amid efforts in Europe and elsewhere to force Catholic priests to report abuse that they learn about during the one-to-one conversations.

Independent investigations into clergy abuse around the world have identified the seal of confession as a major impediment to exposing and preventing abuse, and called for it to be abolished. The investigations have documented how abusers used the confessional to solicit sex from minors and then relied on the seal of confession to keep it secret.

In his speech to the Spanish parliament Monday, Leo framed the right of the church to keep priest-penitent conversations confidential as a matter of freedom of religion.

“To protect it legally, as is done in a similar way in some professions, means preserving a sacred space of inner freedom, where the believer can open his or her soul to God without fear of external pressures,” he said.

Some former members of the powerful Catholic movement Opus Dei, which was founded in Spain and remains influential here, were unable to get a meeting with Leo. They had sought to speak to him while he was in Madrid about psychological and other abuses they say they suffered in the movement.

“We do not speak out of bitterness, nor do we seek any kind of revenge; rather, we speak out of a sense of responsibility and moral duty as those who have firsthand knowledge of a reality that has caused grave harm to the church and suffering to many people,” eight former members wrote to Leo on May 24 in asking for an audience.

Leo’s office received their letter but was unable to arrange the meeting at such a late date, said Gareth Gore, an author who met with the pope at the Vatican in March about a book he wrote in 2024 on alleged abuses in Opus Dei that the movement strongly rejected as unfounded.

In declining the meeting, Leo might want to avoid suggestions he was interfering in church and Argentine investigations into the movement. In 2024, Argentine prosecutors concluded there were grounds for launching a criminal investigation into its top South American officials on charges of human trafficking and labor exploitation against 44 women.

Opus Dei in Argentina has denied the accusations.

Pope Leo XIV waves in Madrid, Spain, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

Pope Leo XIV leaves after meeting with Spain's bishops at the Spanish Episcopal Conference in Madrid, Spain, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

Pope Leo XIV leaves after meeting with Spain's bishops at the Spanish Episcopal Conference in Madrid, Spain, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrea Comas)

Pope Leo XIV meets with Spain's bishops at the Spanish Episcopal Conference, in Madrid, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)