Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
The world’s first space hotel
TAKING a trip to space currently can set you back a couple of million – and a five-star experience it is not.
That will all change when the world’s first space hotel opens in 2027.
Enter the Voyager Station that “leverages the technologies of space and the comforts of Earth to create a unique experience unparalleled in history”.
Developed by the Orbital Assembly Corporation, the construction for the Voyager Station in low Earth orbit starts in 2025.
Once complete, guests will experience a string of luxury amenities like a health spa, gyms, themed restaurants, concert venues, Earth-viewing lounges and bars and accommodation for 400 people.
Guests will enjoy luxury villa accommodation with cooking facilities for up to 16 people or hotel suites for two guests.
The Voyager’s restaurant will rival the best venues on Earth, while the sky bar will offer grand views of the station as guests savour their cocktails.
The Gateway Foundation, the company that established the Orbital Assembly Corporation in 2018,
described the project as a rotating space station designed to produce varying levels of artificial gravity by increasing or decreasing the rate of rotation.
The station will accommodate national space agencies to conduct low gravity research and space tourists.
Daily Mail reported that the hotel would feature a series of pods attached to the outside of the rotating ring.
Some of the 24 modules would be run by the Gateway Foundation, with each of the modules 20m long and 12m wide.
Orbital Assembly said the multiphased plan to open Voyager Station includes a public demo later this year.
Chief architect of Orbital Assembly Dr Tom Spilker shared details of the project on The Space Show last month.
He said: “With Voyager Station, we don’t want to have to develop any new technologies, we want it to be technologies that are already in hand. It’s just that we are applying them in new ways to get a structure and a facility like that.
“So, we are not going to be bogged down by technology development that can go wrong and cost delays because the technology doesn’t work out like we thought it would.”
The founder of the Gateway Foundation, John Blincow, described the project as the “next industrial revolution”.
He said: “Rotation is vital as it isn’t viable to have people on a space station without gravity for long periods.
“People may want to be in space for months at a time, especially when working in a hotel. People need gravity so their bodies won’t fall apart.”
The costs of developing and building Voyager Station and travel fees haven’t been released.