'Luxury Space Hotel' to Launch in 2021

[brooklynite]

Source: Space.com

Well-heeled space tourists will have a new orbital destination four years from now, if one company's plans come to fruition.

That startup, called Orion Span, aims to loft its "Aurora Station" in late 2021 and begin accommodating guests in 2022.

"We are launching the first-ever affordable luxury space hotel," said Orion Span founder and CEO Frank Bunger, who unveiled the Aurora Station idea today (April 5) at the Space 2.0 Summit in San Jose, California.

"Affordable" is a relative term: A 12-day stay aboard Aurora Station will start at $9.5 million. Still, that's quite a bit less than orbital tourists have paid in the past. From 2001 through 2009, seven private citizens took a total of eight trips to the International Space Station (ISS), paying an estimated $20 million to $40 million each time. (These private missions were brokered by the Virginia-based company Space Adventures and employed Russian Soyuz spacecraft and rockets.)

"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," Bunger said of Aurora Station

Read more: https://www.space.com/g00/40207-space-hotel-launch-2021-aurora-station.html?i10c.encReferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8%3D&i10c.ua=1

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[maveric]

1. More toys for the rich.

.

[brooklynite]

2. Did you say the same then when the first plasma and lcd TVs came out?

Entry products, which incorporate all the costs of planning and design, are always high. Then they drop to more affordable rates as construction efficiencies are developed.

[kcr]

4. Yay, we'll all be taking trips to the space hotel in a few years!

Just like TVs. Totally the same thing

[brooklynite]

6. Okay - how about commercial aviation?

In the 21st century, air travel is relatively cheap, but in the 1950s, you could expect to pay 40% or more for the same ticket you buy today. A ticket on TWA in 1955 from Chicago to Phoenix, for example, cost $138 round-trip. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $1,168.

https://www.fastcodesign.com/3022215/what-it-was-really-like-to-fly-during-the-golden-age-of-travel

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Ha-ha. Nearly 10 million dollars for a 12 day stay is nothing like LCD or plasma TVs

It is not going to be 'affordable' to vacation in space until a completely new energy source is found, and the world is totally transformed. That won't happen in the foreseeable future, and this venture (probably a scam, because it's unfeasible) will have nothing to do with it.

[Pope George Ringo II]

27. Either energy source or space elevator

The chemistry required to put that one together is its own problem, though.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Economic activity for middle class. They'll get more money than if richie buys old art or realestate

[haele]

16. How high is the orbit proposed to be?

Have they a solution for the radiation exposure for the staff who will apparently be onboard longer? Have they looked at some of NASA's "twin study" data between the Kelly brothers to figure out what is going to physically happen to their staff and guests?

Will life at the hotel be as physically constrained as it is on the ISS? I doubt this can be a very luxurious stay just due to the safety issues of being in a small, contained area in space - alcohol and tobacco, as well as medicine and mind-altering substances - will have to be strictly regulated and at a minimum at best. And you aren't going to get five star "whatever you want" food there.
Unless the rich dilettante that books this is reasonably ecologically responsible and scientifically curious - and willing to put up with a Spartan living space with only one or two other people around for company for the day, few days or so this "experience" takes, s/he isn't going to have a very good time.

On edit - when you estimate how large the ISS is, and how much livable space is contained within it, you get the idea on how big this "luxury hotel" is going to have to be just so the visitors and staff can survive in relative comfort. How are you even going to get the amount of water per visitor up there you need just for the tourists on a regular basis, not to mention the rest of amenities - like back-up components to fix the systems that provide air filtering, sanitation, gravitational stabilization, radiation blocking, navigation, heat and cooling, etc...

It's not going to be as pleasant as base camp in Everest or a ride on the Vomit Comet.

Haele

[TranssexualKaren]

3. Just sayn....

Anyone seen the movie Elysium?

[xor]

7. This seems highly unlikely to be successful at that price tag.

How many people are going to be willing to take the risk of space travel and be able to fork out 9-million dollars? Wouldn't they need to stay pretty busy to pay for the price of design, construction, launch and maintenance on such a thing?

[getagrip_already]

8. really?

The russian gov't has already sold several rides in the $40M range.

Some people just won't feel $20M for a honeymoon in the stars.

[xor]

19. I'm sure they will have some takers. Little doubt about that.

What I wonder is if there are enough of them to keep them busy enough to pay for the costs associated with it. The people who went up with the Russians were tag alongs. Those missions would have taken place regardless if people went up. That just kind of added a discount to the missions by having a rich person subsidize part of it. Even if they were charging 40 million a pop, that still seems pretty low to cover the cost of designing, building, launching, and maintaining such a hotel.

I could be wrong here, but I would like to see more details on how much they plan on spending to get this going and their estimated customers.

[TranssexualKaren]

10. To someone like a Sheldon Adelson....

That’s pocket change.

[TranssexualKaren]

11. Also, remember that....

Over time this will become cheaper, safer and a status symbol as well.

[DBoon]

12. There is a whole class of billionaires who think the price is just fine

Our wages have been flat for 30 years to grow this group of social parasites

[xor]

17. Well, I understand there are plenty of billionaires who find the price tag acceptable

but is that number enough to keep such an expensive operation busy enough?

[DBoon]

18. maybe

Depends fixed vs. variable costs, and how many flights/yr are required to cover fixed costs. What does it cost to run a space station empty?

I suspect they figured it out and priced accordingly. They know the costs, they know how many obscenely wealthy peopl out there wouldn't blink at the cost, and I suspect it will be a success.

[xor]

20. If they figured that out and can do it, then I think it's a good first step...

to eventually making it something that normal people can take part in. I just have my doubts about it. I lean more with the poster above who says it smells more like a scam-type thing. Vaporware.

[getagrip_already]

21. they will do fine, but

two people who won't have to pay will be jared and ivanka.

Chances are nasa will send them up for free as ambassadors of good will.

I wish I were kidding.

[DBoon]

25. If we send them up

do they have to come back?

[getagrip_already]

29. there is enough junk floating around in orbit......

we don't need the ice queen and her consort hitting anything valuable. Besides, it's amusing thinking of them burning up on re-entry.

[dameatball]

13. Can't I just join the Space Force and stay two years for free???

It's okay if we don't get steak and lobster every night.

[forgotmylogin]

14. "We are launching the first-ever affordable luxury space hotel,"

Those are some people who've never stayed at a Holiday Inn.

Progress, sure...all for it.

Perhaps just "first-ever space hotel".

Or even "first space hotel luxury experience for well-heeled adventurers".

$791.6k a night has nothing remotely to do with the adjective "affordable" when speaking of accommodation, even when speaking about those that exist in space.

[eggplant]

15. Money spent on foolishness is still money spent.

It's what greases the economy. It's not like they are just launching cash into space.

[PSPS]

22. This is what happens when the parasite class doesn't have to pay any taxes.

[brooklynite]

23. You realize that there are people in high tax States and Nations that could afford this?

I must say, I never thought of J.K. Rowling as a "parasite"...

[PSPS]

24. Sorry, but anyone who can afford this isn't paying enough in taxes.

[brooklynite]

26. Income envy is never pretty...

Taxes should be set to cover the expenses of the jurisdiction, not to make sure people have the RIGHT amount of income.

Out of curiosity, how much money SHOULD someone have?

[PSPS]

28. LOL. It's "income envy" now, is it? That's the exact term Rush and the rest of the RW uses. Goodbye.

[Orange Free State]

30. Im starting a Go Fund Me right now

Anything to get me off this planet. I don’t like it here anymore.