This Could Be Your Next Holiday

Planning a trip away? Looking for something different? Slap down a deposit on a room at the first luxury hotel in space.

Words: Pierre-Henri Camy

Photos: Orion Span

Ever since US tycoon Dennis Tito holidayed on the ISS in 2001 for an estimated £15 million, the dream of more affordable space tourism has long been promised. Now you can set a date: 2022, apparently.

“Aurora Station will get you to space quicker and for less money than any option touted so far,” says Frank Bunger, CEO and founder of Orion Span, the US company building the space station, billed as “the first affordable luxury hotel in space”. ‘Affordable’ is a subjective term: a trip to the satellite will cost around £7m – less than half of what Tito and the six other ISS tourists paid, but hardly the cost of your average package holiday.

What you’ll get for your money is a 12-day trip to 320km above the Earth. If that doesn’t sound long, bear in mind the Aurora has a 90- minute orbit, witnessing 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours, so, in a way, you’re getting 192 days of holiday crammed into less than a fortnight. As well as seeing both northern and southern auroras, you’re guaranteed sea views – all of them.

The 13m-long vessel will accommodate four guests and two crew inside its 160m³ pressurised interior, all of whom can move freely throughout in zero gravity, enjoy a VR ‘holodeck’, and participate in research experiments such as growing food in space – laying the groundwork for future colonies on the moon and Mars, and gaining souvenir space veggies to bring home. You can also FaceTime with loved ones on Earth via the station’s high-speed Wi-Fi.

Aurora Station has a pressurised internal volume that offers almost six times less space than the ISS. Extra modules can be added in orbit, allowing Orion Span to eventually sell long-term living quarters

Orion Span plans to launch Aurora Station in 2021, with the first trips in 2022 after guests have done three months of training. While that sounds bold, the team’s credentials are impressive: they include an ISS space-flight engineer, a space-shuttle payload architect, and a three-decade veteran of NASA missions. Orion Span is so confident that it’s already taking bookings – a fully refundable deposit of £60,000 buys you a place on the waiting list.

orionspan.com