First Luxury Hotel in Space Expected to Launch By 2021

When it opens, Aurora Station might just be the most unique and remote hotel you can stay at. But, honestly, it’s a bit up in the air.

You see, Aurora Station is not planned for some far-away terrestrial locale. Instead, it’ll be in orbit about 200 miles above the Earth. In fact, the hotel — which is actually a modular space station — is being billed as the “first-ever luxury hotel in space.”

Houston-based startup Orion Span, Inc. hopes to launch the hotel in 2021, and begin welcoming guests the following year, the company announced at the Space 2.0 summit in San Jose on April 5.

The 35-by-14-foot space module will be able to accommodate four guests, as well as two crew members that will accompany every excursion. A stay will include 12 days of space travel, during which time guests will witness some incredible views. And because Aurora Station will orbit Earth every 90 minutes, they’ll be able to see around 16 sunrises and sunsets every day.

“We are launching the first-ever affordable luxury space hotel,” Orion Span CEO Frank Bunger said at the summit.

Before you get too excited, know that the use of the word “affordable” is extremely relative in this scenario. A stay at the celestial inn will run $9.5 million per person. That’s about $791,666 a night. Orion Span is also requiring an $80,000 refundable deposit to book a stay, which you can put down beginning today.

Interested guests will have to undergo a three-month training program to get themselves ready for the trip. As Bloomberg points out, “launch and re-entry are not for the faint of heart.” But Bunger says that it’s an extremely streamlined and discounted process compared to the typical 24-month training regimen used to prepare would-be space travelers.

Currently, there’s no word on how guests will actually get to Aurora Station once it’s in orbit. But Orion Span has four years to secure a chartering deal with another private space company.

But the fact that a startup can announce something like a space hotel and be taken seriously is proof enough that we live in the future. And while Aurora Station is still a few years off, Orion Span is already plotting its next big endeavor: space condominiums.