The first space hotel will receive customers in 2022

Many people are talking and writing about space tourism. Some companies are no longer just talking, but are engaged in the implementation of projects from the field of space tourism. These are, for example, Blue Origin Jeffrey Bezos, Virgin Galactic Richard Branson, Paragon Space Development and some other organizations. All of them can send tourists into space for just a few minutes, so that people can enjoy the beauty of space and of the Earth itself. But there is a company that has declared that its tourists will be able to remain in the orbit of our planet for several days. We are talking about the authors of the project of a space hotel, which was called Aurora Station. Its guests will be able to enjoy the views opening out of the windows for twelve days. All this time they will be able to meet sunrises and sunsets - about 16 times a day. True, the cost of the tour will be at least $ 9.5 million. A lot, but there are plenty of businessmen on Earth who can afford such a vacation.



The creation of the hotel was told at the Space 2.0 Summit, held last week in San Jose, California. The company that developed the project and plans to implement it on time is called Orion Span. The startup offers a modular design of the station, capable of accommodating about six people, two of whom are team members. As mentioned above, the station will receive its first guests in 2022.



“Our goal is to make space accessible to everyone, and with little money,” says Frank Bunger, the company's founder. $ 9.5 million can be called small means in relation to space tourism, and not just a simple flight on an orbital ship, but a full-fledged stay on the space station for almost two weeks.

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At the moment, only one company is engaged in sending tourists to the ISS - this is Roscosmos, which works together with the company Space Adventures. Tourists are trained in the star town and sent to the Russian segment of the orbital station on the Soyuz spacecraft. The cost of the tour is from $ 20 to $ 40 million. Despite the high price of the ticket, the number of people willing to fly into orbit is only growing.



Seeing the growth dynamics of customers or just the number of people who want to go into space, various companies started developing space tourism. As mentioned above, the problem is in the short term pleasure. Jeff Bezos reusable rocket New Shepard will send people into space for only 3-4 minutes. The total duration of the trip will be 10 minutes. Approximately the same time it will take space to admire the passengers of Virgin Galactic Branson. The ticket price will be a little over $ 200 thousand.



As for the space hotel, then it will be built early next year in Houston. And it will not do NASA. The main part of the hotel is a cylindrical module that fits in size in a rocket. By the way, the hotel team, which was mentioned above, will consist of two ex-astronauts. One of them must have experience in treating people in outer space.



Tourists will be able to upload photos of everything that is happening thanks to high-speed wireless (actually, what else) Internet. They will be invited to participate in scientific and technical programs. This may be growing plants in zero gravity conditions or working using virtual reality glasses.



The interior of the hotel is planning to make it pleasing to the eye. It is clear that in the conditions of open space it is difficult to make the accommodation of tourists truly comfortable, but a number of ideas already exist, and they will gradually be realized. Tourists will be able to go into orbit only after a three-month course in the basics of space flight, orbital mechanics and working conditions in weightlessness. The startup has already offered potential tourists to leave $ 80,000 for pre-ordering the "voucher" to space.



As for the delivery of people and goods to the hotel, now the company is in talks with SpaceX, Blue Origin and other companies, and the search for the best partner is underway.



The Orion Span team includes the spacecraft engineer, the “space architect” and the ex-vice-president of ARES Corporation announced their intention to launch the station at the same time as Richard Branson’s statement. On the same day, he spoke about the successful flight of his orbiter. It was the first test of the system three and a half years after the collapse of SpaceShipTwo.