Travel + Leisure - September 19, 2022

The world's first space hotel will feature a gourmet restaurant, bar, and vacation villas for purchase.

Space tourism is no longer the stuff of science fiction — it's just around the corner. Aside from private missions to space, like Inspiration4 and DearMoon, during which members of the general public get to spend a few days in a SpaceX vehicle circling the Earth and moon, respectively, there are also a few space hotels in the works. The latest to announce its potential opening date is Orbital Assembly's Voyager Station, which is currently scheduled to begin construction in 2026 and welcome guests in 2027.

Taking its cue from science fiction films like "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Interstellar," Voyager Station will create artificial gravity by using centrifugal force. The new space hotel will take on the shape of a Ferris wheel, spinning to simulate gravity in its pods.

COURTESY OF ORBITAL ASSEMBLY

Though its form might be unusual compared to Earth hotels, its rooms and amenities will be largely familiar to regular travelers. There will be luxurious accommodations for up to 280 guests — including villas available for purchase as vacation homes — as well as a gourmet restaurant, bar, gymnasium, and entertainment center. In essence, it's your standard high-end resort, just in space.

Plans for the space hotel were first revealed in 2019 under the name Von Braun Rotating Space Station, but there has been a bit of rebranding since then — Wernher Von Braun was an aerospace engineer who was crucial to the development of rockets, but he worked under the Nazi regime in Germany before coming to the United States and eventually joining NASA. The opening date has also been pushed back — the company's early estimate was for 2025 — which calls into question the ambition of a 2027 debut. According to Orbital Assembly, any related delays were due to the Covid-19 pandemic and not any technological holdups.

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