If you’re looking to give your post-pandemic travel plans a boost, consider space — as in “outer space.” By 2027, you could be blasting off to the very first luxury space hotel, Voyager Station.
Orbital Assembly Corporation, a new construction company run by former pilot John Blincow, is spearheading the project. Construction on the space hotel is expected to begin in 2026. “We’re trying to make the public realize that this golden age of space travel is just around the corner. It’s coming. It’s coming fast,” Blincow recently told CNN.
The 280-guest, 112-crew-member hotel promises to deliver an otherworldly experience, quite literally. Renderings of the future space hotel resemble any luxury Earth-bound hotel, just with better views. Guests can expect hotel suites designed in a soothing, warm palette, along with chic bars and restaurants — where they might find elevated twists on traditional “space food” — like freeze-dried ice cream. Recreational activities will be designed to take advantage of weightlessness and reduced gravity. For example, you can jump higher, lift things or run in ways that are not possible on Earth.
How does it work? Tim Alatorre, senior design architect at Orbital Assembly Corporation, told CNN that the physics are much like spinning “a bucket of water.” As the station rotates, it pushes the contents of the station out to the perimeter and stays in place. “The water pushes out into the bucket and stays in place,” he said. There’s no artificial gravity at the center of the station, but as you move down the outside of the station, the feeling of gravity increases.
The company has not published room rates yet, but odds are, your stay at Voyager Station won’t be cheap. For example, Virgin Galactic’s current rate for blasting off ordinary passengers into space at $250,000 per person, per trip. Still, the masterminds behind Voyager Station say that they plan to eventually make a stay at the hotel something similar to buying a cruise ticket.
Bottom line? Space tourism is here.
