Space & Astronomy

First 'luxury space hotel' to launch in 2021

By T.K. Randall
April 6, 2018 ·  27 comments

The station will offer incredible views... for a price. Image Credit: Orion Span The company, which is based in Texas, is certainly not short on ambition given that it aims to build the facility itself with the help of engineers who have previously worked on the International Space Station.

Known as Aurora Station, the 'hotel' will measure 43.5ft long by 14.1ft wide. It will orbit around 200 miles above the Earth and will offer accommodation for four guests and two crew members.

Despite being billed as 'affordable', a 12-day stay aboard the station will set you back $9.5 million.

"We are launching the first-ever affordable luxury space hotel," said Orion Span founder Frank Bunger."There's been innovation around the architecture to make it more modular and more simple to use and have more automation, so we don't have to have EVAs [extravehicular activities] or spacewalks."

"The goal when we started the company was to create that innovation to make simplicity possible, and by making simplicity possible, we drive a tremendous amount of cost out of it."

Over time, the firm plans to expand the space hotel with a wider range of modules.

"Our long-term vision is to sell actual space in those new modules," said Bunger. "We're calling that a space condo. So, either for living or subleasing, that's the future vision here - to create a long-term, sustainable human habitation in LEO [low Earth orbit]."

Source: Space.com | Comments (27)

Tags: Space Hotel, Aurora Station