World’s first space hotel set to begin construction by 2026

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The world’s—or maybe even the galaxy’s—first-ever space hotel will begin construction in the near future, space construction company Orbital Assembly said.

While the company, whose employees include National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) veterans, initially projected to begin construction in 2025, they had to delay said plans due to the pandemic, as per The Washington Post on March 3.

“It’s going to happen fast when it starts,” Orbital Assembly chief executive John Blincow was quoted as saying, noting that it would take only a year or two to assemble the hotel.

“And we believe it’s going to happen a lot, too, even before we finish the first one. We have buyers for other stations because they’re very, very lucrative,” he added.

The hotel is set to be constructed in low-Earth orbit and is set to be equipped with restaurants, a cinema and entertainment centers, among others, Orbital Assembly disclosed in its “First Assembly” YouTube livestream on Jan. 29.

The Voyager Station, the commercial space station that will house the hotel, is expected to hold around 400 people including 280 guests and 112 crew members, according to the report. They will include space tourists, scientists conducting research, and service industry professionals.

These guests, however, will have to undergo training first in order to board the space hotel. Aspiring tourists are also expected to pay $5 million (around P243 million) to have their space vacation.

“It’s a historic moment,” Blincow was quoted as saying. “You’re going to have the top chefs making really, really good food. And when you pay $5 million to go someplace, it’s not going to be burgers and fries.”

As the hotel will be in space, Orbital Assembly will be building the Voyager Station to rotate to create artificial gravity, allowing guests to still be able to sleep, eat and lounge about as close to “normal” as possible. It is so that guests will not experience “moon-face,” the not-so-pleasing effect of microgravity on the body’s fluid distribution, according to the report.

Blincow noted that as guests will be in artificial gravity similar to that in the moon, jumping in the Voyager Station means jumping five times higher than on Earth.

Aside from letting guests enjoy the experience of space travel for quite a hefty fee, they can also expect to be served food from the planet’s top chefs, as well as witness concerts from the world’s top entertainers such as Beyoncé and Sting, among others.

Guests can also look forward to being able to spacewalk, an experience only astronauts and cosmonauts have been able to have since man learned how to go to space.

“There’s nothing between you and the universe but the faceplate,” Blincow was quoted as saying. “Going out there and looking at the whole solar system and the Earth from the outside, it’s going to be an extraordinary moment.” Ian Biong /ra

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